A replica of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s historic travelling coat is set to go on display in Rome from December, as part of an exhibition celebrating the German poet’s journey around Italy.
It is a celebration of Goethe, a poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director and critic, who was marked by his time in the Mediterranean country.
He travelled through Italy from 1786 to 1788. Heading south via Innsbruck in Austraia and Italy’s Brenner Pass, he visited Trento, Lake Garda, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Venice, Bologna, Rome and Alban Hills, Naples and Sicily.
The new show is a stop on a new German-Italian cultural trail called the Giro di Goethe. Linking cultural and tourist attractions along the path he took on his journey, the route heads from Weimar in Germany, through Verona, Venice and Florence to Rome, Naples and Sicily.
He is said to have travelled tens of thousands of kilometres during his lifetime, and the blue-grey woollen coat with a shoulder cape went with him.
You can explore the In the Footsteps Of Goethe’s Italian Journey exhibition at the Casa di Goethe in Rome. Alongside the coat, it also houses other items from Weimar’s Klassik Stiftung museum.
The land of the arts
“I am in the land of the arts; let me study them really thoroughly, so that I may find peace and joy for the rest of my life and be able to go on to something else. Rome is a marvellous place,” Goethe said.
The Casa di Goethe museum in Rome is situated on the Via del Corso, where Goethe lived for a time with the painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein.
During this period, Tischbein painted the famous portrait of the poet (Goethe In The Campagna).
Goethe was shaped by his time in Italy and his writing from that time shaped the image of Italy in Europe and beyond.
He wrote many letters to a number of friends in Germany, and used these as the basis for Italian Journey, along with his diaries and including afterthoughts and reminiscences.
The book has an additional aspect of fiction, too. Goethe said in a letter that the work was “both entirely truthful and a graceful fairy-tale”.
He began his trip in 1786, at the age of 37, taking a leave of absence from his duties in Weimar, from a long platonic affair with a court lady and from his immense fame as the author of the novel The Sorrows Of Young Werther and play Gotz von Berlichingen.
“Two hundred and forty years after Goethe set off for Italy, we are setting out in his footsteps,” says German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer.
“With the Giro di Goethe, we aim to turn his Italian journey into a vibrant cultural route – from Verona via Venice and Florence to Naples and Sicily.” – dpa
