Richard Paul Roe spent more than twenty years traveling the length and breadth of Italy to seek out and document the exact locations in which Shakespeare set his ten Italian Plays. Using as his compass only the exact lines spoken by characters in each play, Roe succeeded in pinpointing the location of nearly every scene in "Romeo and Juliet", "Two Gentlemen of Verona", "The Merchant of Venice", and others - and his captivating narrative of travel and scholarship reveals surprises about "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Tempest", and more, that will revolutionize the way we read Shakespeare. An introduction by the author's daughter, Hilary Roe Metternich, gives a behind-the-scenes look at her father's passion for the Bard and the lengths to which he went in pursuit of answers; and the copiously annotated, lavishly illustrated guide - including more than 150 maps, photographs, and paintings - makes for a richly compelling, deeply thought-provoking, and endlessly inspiring journey through Shakespeare's Italy.