Why do you think Shakespeare picked Italy for the Romeo and Juliet play?

Question:Shakespeare picked his settings very carefully taking in consideration the stereotypes that his audience would have and the mystical aspect of having a play set somewhere most of those people would be unfamiliar with. Here are some things to consider:
1. Stereotypes of Italy and Italian people
2. Religion of the people
3. Distance from England

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Shakespeare picked his settings very carefully taking in consideration the stereotypes that his audience would have and the mystical aspect of having a play set somewhere most of those people would be unfamiliar with. Here are some things to consider:
1. Stereotypes of Italy and Italian people
2. Religion of the people
3. Distance from England

Also consider 4.) Shakespeare's play was based on an Italian story that was already known in England at the time, so keeping R & J set in Italy would have made it more recognizable to the audience.

It was available.

What you have to keep in mind is that Shakespeare didn't _pick_ Italy for Romeo & Juliet at all. If you decided to write a story about, say, Abraham Lincoln, you wouldn't "pick" the United States during the Civil War for your story. Same with Shakespeare. He adapted a lot of old stories for the stage, and Romeo and Juliet was one of them. You'd do very well to read the wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_J...
for a really good treatment of how he got the story.

What I think your question _really_ means is, "Why did Shakespeare use so many old Italian stories for his plays?" And there we get into the tastes of his audience, and, probably his own taste. Four hundred years ago, Italy was a _long_ way from England. It was a big deal to travel that far, and most people never did; only the very rich could afford to. If you think about Italy today, you probably think about a beautiful, sun-drenched country full of gorgeous, passionate people. It was the same for Shakespeare and the people back in drab, rainy old London, only even more so--Italy was the land of Machievelli and the Pope (Italy was the capital of Catholicism, while England had recently become a Protestant country), so it was a country of intrigue and scheming. Wild things happened there! So people in England loved to get stories of those wicked, passionate Italians--it was a kind of escape for them from their dull, muddy lives.

Hope this helps.