While we were on top of that hill in Verona the other day, in addition to the gorgeous panoramic vistas I also spotted something that makes me think that some people are just a bit confused when it comes to using the “Locks of Love.” This has nothing to do with that woman who paid more attention to her blue balloon than to the beautiful scene before her. Rather, it has to do with the placement of these locks.

Just to review, the original novel has a man promising eternal love to a woman by writing their names on a lock, locking it to a railing, and throwing away the key into the river. The intent is that their love is as external as the lock that is now forever fastened to the railing.

The fact that in the book the man does this with many women — and not just one — is something that conveniently gets overlooked by the lovers who aim to repeat this tradition.

Anyway, here’s a lock that is attached to a lamppost, not a railing. But at least it’s by a river, so theoretically Antony and Yuki (“antonyuki”) could have tossed their key into the water below:

Locks of Love, near the Adige River, Verona

But then there are other lovers that seem a little unclear on the concept. For example, note all the locks fastened to a wall at the top of the hill, far from the river or any body of water in which to toss the key:

Hilltop Locks of Love, Verona

Today we walked by some attached to the top of an old well; the middle has at least 6 or 7 locks dangling from it, plus there are other locks attached to the side rails:

Well with Locks of Love dangling from the top

While on the one hand the concept of the well is a clever idea as a receptacle for the key, but unfortunately it’s clear that the lid of this well is tightly locked down:

Locked well cover

Anyway, the novel that is said to have spawned this modern tradition was written in the 1970s or 1980s and written in Italian. So it’s hard to reconcile how the key element — pun intended — to the story, where true love is demonstrated by irretrievably tossing the key into a deep body of water, seems to have been lost in translation here in the Italian city of Verona.