What is Goethe's Italian Journey?

In September 1786, Goethe left Weimar and headed south. He did not come back until 1788. Italian Journey is his record of those two years, and it is one of the best-known travel books ever written about Italy.

The basics

The book is a mix of essay and diary, based on Goethe's diaries and letters from the trip but polished and expanded with later reflections, according to Wikipedia. The first parts were published in 1816 and 1817; the final section was written in 1828-29. So what you read is not a raw travel journal but an older writer shaping the memory of a younger self's great escape. That double perspective is part of its charm.

The standard English translation is by W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, first published in 1962.

The route

Goethe's itinerary reads like a dream holiday, with several months of it in Rome:

• The way in. Karlsbad, the Brenner Pass, Trento and Lake Garda, including Malcesine.
• The north. Verona, where he admired the Roman amphitheatre as the first true classical monument he had seen; Vicenza; Padua; and Venice, where he got hold of Andrea Palladio's printed works and studied them closely.
• Through the middle. Bologna, Florence and Assisi.
• Rome. The heart of the trip. He lived with the painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein and became friends with the painter Angelica Kauffman.
• The south. Naples, Pompeii, Vesuvius and Paestum, then Sicily, including Palermo and Agrigento, travelling with the painter Christoph Heinrich Kniep.

Why it still matters

The journey changed Goethe himself. It shaped his ideas about classical beauty and architecture, and back in Weimar he stepped back from many of his official duties to concentrate on writing, as the same article notes. It even inspired the Duchess Anna Amalia to make her own Italian trip in 1788-90.

For readers today, the book is a reminder of what travel to Italy used to mean: a long, slow apprenticeship in looking. In Naples and Sicily, Goethe is drawn to the local way of life as much as to the classical ruins. It belongs to the world of the Grand Tour, which we explain in what the Grand Tour was.

Which bits to read

It is a long book, and nobody is obliged to read it straight through. Our suggestions:

• The opening chapters, to Verona. The excitement of crossing the Alps into the south is infectious.
• Venice. For the Palladio obsession, especially if you know the Veneto.
• The first weeks in Rome. The feeling of finally arriving.
• Naples and Sicily. The liveliest, most open-hearted part of the book.

Dip into whichever section matches where you are going. Reading Goethe on Lake Garda while sitting by Lake Garda is a small, specific joy.

How to read it

Think of it as a companion rather than a story. The entries are short, there is no plot to lose, and Goethe's enthusiasm carries you between the stretches of scholarly detail. A paperback in the bag is perfect. If you like this kind of writing, Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel reflects on why journeys like Goethe's matter.