I've just come back from a school trip to Italy and in Verona we lay our scene, as William Shakespeare famously wrote.

My girlfriend had spent the two-hour flight reminding me just how much she wanted to go and see Juliet's house in Verona. I kept telling her that with Romeo and Juliet being a fictional tale this would not be possible.

However, as always, my arrogance got the better of me when we were told we had a few hours to look around Verona and Juliet's house was a recommended hot spot.

So, ten minutes later I found myself standing on Juliet's balcony looking down at the courtyard below, while at my side my girlfriend is looking rather pleased with herself.

This all changed when I overheard a tour guide talking about the story of Romeo and Juliet. This is what she said: The story was not actually written by Shakespeare, rather a young Italian poet. Shakespeare got a copy of it and turned it into a play a few years after it was written. Obviously it then became very famous and tourism in Verona went through the roof and banged its head on Juliet's balcony."

Except it didn't, as there was no Juliet's house let alone a balcony in which this tourism could bang. This then led to a hunt in the Italian archives for a Juliet Capulet so they could find the house and balcony.

Unsurprisingly this returned no names so they took the nearest name they could find, Capo, and used the Capo residence as Juliet's house. It then occurred to them that the house had no balcony, so, 30 years ago, they cemented a great big one to the side of it.

At this point they opened a small kiosk and charged innocent people like me four euros for the privilege of going there.

This really sums up my opinion of Italy. Sure, it's an absolutely stunning place. The buildings, the scenery, even the climate, are all so absorbing to a tourist yet somehow something doesn't seem quite right.

Lies appear to be the foundation on which some of this beauty is built, which is heartbreaking because it really is truly breathtaking.