Goethe on Italy
I’m reading Goethe’s “Italian Journey”. He remarks during his visit to Rome: “The past year has been the most important one in my life; it does not matter whether I die now or last a while longer, in either case I am content.” People used to ask me whether there was anything about England I missed when I moved to the United States; I would reply, “Yes, Italy”.
Beautifully. and delicately, put sentiment. I just returned from a trip to Tuscany. Like lake Como, each time I visit, I am struck speechless, like a little child, by the physical beauty of the place, and by the way people have integrated themselves, their approach to life, into where they live. A beautiful place to visit, but not I placeI could work in. (I had the opportunity once, but chose to leave.)
Do you have any memories you could share?
I have many memories of trips to Italy. I once spent three weeks in a house near San Gimignano in Tuscany, owned by the philosopher Brian O’Shaughnessy, and went often to Florence for day trips. I remember the Duomo very well and a great many paintings (I particularly like Masaccio).
In Boswell’s, “Journals”, from 1763 to 1764, there’s a whole lot about his bewitched travels in Italy. Always engaging prose, and always evocative of the times in which he travelled—never-mind the relentless seeking of whores. His year-long tour of Europe found him as well at the door-steps of Rousseau and Voltaire .Conversations abound, as recorded diligently in his journals–Voltaire’s talk by far the better, but Rousseau had his moments.
Deeper into the weeds. I can imagine Voltaire sitting in his arm-chair, legs crossed, left hand lazily across his cheek, thinking, “Who is this brazen young Scotsman who so earnestly importunes me?” Rousseau, who understood cats very well, was even more dubious of his visitor’s intent, and justly so. Boswell eventually made off with his then consort. l suppose it’s generally known that Voltaire and Rousseau never met.
“People are saying” (as Trump likes to say), that Voltaire and Rousseau did actually meet once in 1745. Others say they met in 1754. Still others say they never met at all, though they did exchange letters. Such are the hazards of historical scholarship—as researched on the internet..
People are also saying that Voltaire and Rousseau begged for a meeting with Trump but he declined because they are nobodies with low ratings.