ITALIAN JOURNEY 1786/2009

Text: Wolfgang Johann von Goethe
Images: Google Street View

"My purpose in making this wonderful journey 
is not to delude myself but to discover 
myself in the objects I see."

"The motion proposed by the President was: 
Which has been of greater benefit to the Arts – 
Invention or Imitation?"

"My tendency to look at the world 
through the eyes of the painter 
whose pictures I have seen last 
has given me an odd idea."







Bologna, October 20"But I feel irresistibly drawn onward 
and can only concentrate with an effort 
on the present moment."







Perugia, October 25"A man should never think about one thing only, 
because then he will get crazy: 
one should have a thousand things 
whirling about in one's head."






Terni, October 27"Such things are still-born, 
for anything that does not have 
a true raison d'être is lifeless 
and cannot be great or 
ever become so."







Rome, November 1, 1786"Now, at last, 
I have arrived in the First City 
of the world!"







Rome, November 1"Because, if I may say so, 
as soon as one sees with one's own eyes 
the whole which one had hitherto 
only known in fragments and chaotically, 
a new life begins."







Rome, November 7"As I see things at present, when I leave here, 
I shall wish I was arriving instead."







Rome, December 13"Though I expected really to learn something here, 
I never thought I should have to start at the bottom 
of the school and have to unlearn or 
completely relearn so much."








Rome, December 29"It is history, above all, 
that one reads quite differently here 
from anywhere else in the world."








Rome, January 22"As for the artistic taste of the 
German colony here, I can only say: 
the bells ring loudly enough, 
but not in unison."








Rome, February 21"As I was putting my things in order, 
I came across your reproach that 
I contradict myself in my letters."








Naples, February 25"Everybody is out in the streets 
and sitting in the sun as long as 
it is willing to shine."








Naples, March 11"Since my stay in Naples is not going to be a long one, 
I visit the more distant points of interest first."







Naples, March 12"Happy-go-lucky existence, 
content with momentary satisfaction and moderate pleasures, 
and taking pain and sorrow as they come 
with cheerful resignation."








Naples, March 17"I have seen much and thought even more. 
The world is opening itself to me more and more, 
and all that I have long known intellectually 
is now becoming part of me."








Naples, March 20"The Terrible beside the Beautiful, 
the Beautiful beside the Terrible, 
cancel one another out and produce 
a feeling of indifference."








Naples, March 22"If I cannot come back reborn, 
it would be much better 
not to come back at all."








Naples, March 26"On this journey I shall certainly learn how to travel; 
whether I shall learn how to live, I don't know."








Palermo, April 3"No one who has never seen himself 
surrounded on all sides by nothing but the sea 
can have a conception of the world 
and of his own relation to it."








Catania, May 1"I wonder how many 'Travels of a Painter' 
contain such half-truths."







Catania, May 3"There is something lonely about the life of these islanders 
which needs to be refreshed and nourished by chance 
meetings with sympathetic persons."








On the road, June 4"When a journey is over, the traveller himself 
remembers it as an unbroken sequence of events, 
inseparable from each other. 

But when he tries to describe this journey to someone else, 
he finds it impossible to communicate this, 
for he can only present the events 
one by one as separate facts."