Is Verona beautiful or ugly?

While Verona was not well-known to audiences at the time of Shakespeare's writing Romeo and Juliet, it has since become known all over the world as the "city of love," with tourists flocking to see the so-called house of Juliet, among other beautiful sites. It is not known whether Shakespeare himself actually visited Italy; there is certainly no evidence that he did. However, the Verona he depicts in the play is intended to be a beautiful city: "In fair Verona where we lay our scene." Indeed, the city is now renowned for its beauty. It is set between a series of hills, and it is full of dramatic town squares and picturesque architecture.
The interactions between the nobility in Shakespeare's Verona are far from beautiful, but it may have been the case that Shakespeare deliberately chose to set such ugly behavior within a beautiful city for purposes of contrast.