If you think, who am I to go to Italy? Well, history is full of people who have sought Italy. Many of us have been called.
Inspired, captured, magnetised, lured by a place and its enchantments. Goethe’s Italian Journey was evocative of a time when the Grand Tourists made their way to Italy seeking an education of the classical world. Understanding that books could only sustain the myth of a place, being there was essential to know the culture, the history and the way of life. He wrote, ‘we are all pilgrims who seek Italy’.
Many have adopted Italy to sustain their gifts and Italy became a generous all giving, nurturing foster mother. A refuge for the soul - Goethe, Rilke, Twombly, Rothko, Rauschenberg, Schnabel, Turner, de Kooning, Browning, Lord Byron, Keats, James, Woolson, Twain, Lawrence, Cornelisen, Joyce, Capote, Wharton, Berenson, Hemingway, Fuller, Stendhal, Dodge Luhan, De Stael, Vidal, Mayes, Gilbert, Bedford, Highsmith, Guggenheim, Spender, Gorky, Parks, Doeer, Lahiri. The list of artists and writers is vast.
Emily Dickinson rarely left the house, but wrote poetry about Italy that summoned the Gods. Authors living in Italy inspired her. A place can be many things.
“Italy could reside in one’s soul - a quality of independent artistic spirit as strong as could be gleaned from any actual trip” - Barolini, Their Other Side
Another reality is possible and we seek it with glee. Books and Travel - not always an escape, although that is possible, but an expansion of self, an opportunity for emotional truth and fullness. The implications of longing are real. Realisation, or Jung may have said, individualisation. To feel and be ultimately, alive to it all.
We know no place is perfect, but there is just something about Italy. To be ripe with pleasure is at the heart of the decision to return or to seek a taproot. To live in Italy’s aura is really the goal humming in these spirited words.
Nothing, above all, is comparable to the new life that a reflective person experiences when he observes a new country. Though I am still always myself, I believe I have been changed to the very marrow of my bones”
Goethe, Italian Journey
Goethe’s book Italian Journey would influence many writers, women and men that would over time find their way, to the motherland - Italy, seeking art and beauty and ultimately freedom.
