When modern tourism first took its first steps in the second half of the 18th century, it was a very intimate and elitist phenomenon. Only members of the European bourgeoisie and aristocracy could afford a long journey, and Italy, with its millennia of history, was a favorite destination. Travelers were fascinated not only by the oldest cities, but also by smaller urban centers and small villages. Coming to the Bel Paese was an opportunity for regeneration for many artists and intellectuals. Among these was Johann Wolfgang Goethe, a sublime man of letters and poet, who traveled across Italy between 1786 and 1788. Among his many stops, Caserta was one that most impressed the German. More than a century later, another great writer was fascinated by the views of Caserta: Salvatore Di GiacomoIn the following lines we will talk about these two extraordinary testimonies of the Caserta landscape!
Grand palaces and ancient ruins
When Goethe crossed the borders of Italy, he was thirty-seven years old. The journey, which proved to be an opportunity for artistic rebirth for the German writer, lasted approximately two years between 1786 and 1788. At the end of this experience, Goethe published a two-volume work entitled Italian Journey (1816-17). In 1829, he published a third volume on his second visit to Rome. Among the pages of the essay, the author also talks about his stop in Caserta.
Goethe arrived in Caserta on March 14, 1787, to stay only a couple of days, just enough time to visit the Royal Palace of Caserta and the surrounding countryside. As soon as he arrived, he joined his friend and painter. Jakob Philipp Hackert, who was staying in the old part of the PalaceGoethe was struck by the grandeur of the new royal palace, but above all by the greenery in which it was immersed. In his description he compared it to the palace ofEscurial of Madrid.
However, in his considerations the humanist did not fail to express some doubts regarding the vastness of the palace, in his opinion large, but not very lively. Two days later he went to visit the ruins of theancient Capua and the flat countryside of Campania Felix. In describing the Caserta landscape, Goethe was amazed by the lushness of the fields of wheat exchange market e pipeline; what also fascinated the German were the enormous poplars shading the ground. Among the peculiarities of that mid-March day, the young poet noted in his report the presence of snow on the surrounding mountains. This climatic feature brought gusts of cold wind to the Caserta area, making the experience even more moving.
Caserta's landscape: beauty is on the rise
Salvatore Di Giacomo has always been associated with the overwhelming Neapolitan folk culture. Throughout his career as a writer, between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, he was in love with Neapolitan popular culture and its picturesque characters. But the writer also dedicated himself to the Caserta landscape for a period of his life. In fact, in 1924 he published an artistic guide entitled From Capua to CasertaIn this book, Di Giacomo meticulously described the artistic beauties he encountered on his journey through the various towns of Terra di Lavoro. One of the stops that fascinated the writer was the village of Casertavecchia, which he reached thanks to a tourist carriage of the time. This, in fact, was pulled by what Di Giacomo amusingly defined in the guide as "thin obedient little horse».
Along the way, the poet's attention focused on the vast Caserta countryside, which the autumn lights made even more evocative. The writer, in describing the Tifatini Mountains He compared them to a natural frame that enclosed the cultivated fields in an enormous green basin. The color of the soil was a bright green and at the same time faded depending on the type of cultivation. Arriving at the top, Di Giacomo was enchanted by the narrow streets of the village, theilluminated by the timid rays of the autumn sunThe fresh early morning air mixed with the scent of the barrels of winesour grapes coming from a tavern where the carriage stopped. A very different environment from his eccentric Naples, but no less pleasant.
