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.

理查德•保罗•罗毕业于加州大学伯克利分校，主修英语和欧洲史，后获西南大学法学院甲等博士学位。在四十年的法律工作之余，保罗一生都致力于莎士比亚“意大利剧集”的研究。他花了二十多年游历了意大利全境，对这些戏剧进行的考察，深入到了剧集中直接提到或暗示的所有地点，完成了这次重大的文学探索。理查德•保罗•罗于2010年辞世。