Goethe it shows us that Italy is the country of tourism. Every corner, ravine and village is a treasure trove of stories, beauty and secrets. It may be for this reason that since the concept of tourism has existed, Italy has been its destination. All the greats have been to Italy. Men of letters, poets, painters, crowned heads… Anyone wishing to draw on the multi-thousand-year history of Italy has had to come here. Among the many stands out Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
The literary colossus of the Germanic world was in search of the universality of art and literature in particular and discovered how precisely in the beautiful country this dream could become reality thanks to the timeless myths that survive in our nature, in our places and in our memories. . And it is precisely in the Italian experience that Goethe passes from a subjectivistic vision of reality to one based on objective sense. Effects ofItaly. And always in Italy Goethe grasps the difference between the European peoples of the North and those of the Mediterranean, undertaking a reasoning that goes down to the present day.
Goethe and Italy
Goethe wrote many pages on Italy (only the first Viaggio in Italia has about 700 pages) and it is impossible to select the most beautiful. Better to recommend reading the entire 'Journey to Italy'. Among other things, his description of the Naples of the time will be particularly striking, which is summarized in a quote from him: "Naples is a paradise, everyone lives in a kind of intoxication and self-forgetfulness!" But Italy is present in many of his works and peeps out in continuous citations. It should be remembered every now and then, when in the throes of moments of xenophilia we forget that Italy has been the place of inspiration par excellence for countless artists.
Get to know the land of lemons in bloom,
where golden oranges shine among the dark leaves,
a mild wind blows from the blue sky,
the myrtle is quiet and the laurel is sublime,
do you know her perhaps?
Over there, over there I
I would like to go with you, my beloved!
(From 'Wilhelm Meister's Years of Apprenticeship')
