Letters to Juliet

This love letter is from the movie "Letters to Juliet", a ridiculously sweet and adorable love story that I gush over. No shame.

An American girl staying in Verona, Italy with her fiance (whose workaholic tendencies lead him to trade her for research on their pre-honeymoon) stumbles upon an unanswered letter left at the house of Juliet - the romantic starlet from Shakespeare's famous drama. Sophie, an aspiring writer, is curious, intrigued by the 50-year-old letter, and writes back as Juliet. The letter's owner is an old woman from England named Claire, who arrives in Verona a few days later with her grandson - they meet Sophie, and set off together on an ambitious journey to find her long-lost lover Lorenzo - whom she left waiting for her in the vineyard when they were teenagers (played by Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero - recognize them?)

The letter that Sophie ("Juliet") writes to Claire has always gripped me, not just for its beauty, but for its final few sentences:

What' and ‘if’ two words as nonthreatening as words come. But put them together side-by-side and they have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life: ‘What if?'

I don't know how your story ended. But I know that if what you felt then was love - true love - then it's never too late. If it was true then it why wouldn't it be true now? You need only the courage to follow your heart.

I don't know what a love like that feels like... a love to leave loved ones for, a love to cross oceans for... but I'd like to believe if I ever felt it, I'd have the courage to seize it. I hope you had the courage to seize it, Claire. And if you didn't, I hope one day that you will.

A love to leave loved ones for, a love to cross oceans for...

Who knows where it will lead, but I'm glad I had to courage to seize it.