Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

Foreword

This page is a directory of links to the monuments of Rome quoted in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Italienische Reise (Italian Journey) which he made in 1786-1788. Goethe wrote the book many years after his travels. It was published in 1816-1817 with additional chapters in 1829 which explains some remarks on events which occurred after 1788. It is a literary work by an old man based upon letters and a journal written when he was in his thirties, an autobiography of a key passage of his life.
Other quotations can be seen in a page covering Casa di Goethe, the apartment where he lived in Rome, which today is a German cultural institution. You may wish to read also some comments by Goethe on sites he visited on his way to Rome, e.g. Lake Garda, restrooms at Torbole, Malcesine, Museo Lapidario Maffeiano of Verona, the Arena of Verona, Porta Palio of Verona, the Italian Hour, the murazzi of Venice, the character of the inhabitants of Chioggia, the singing of the gondoliers of Venice, Assisi and Civita Castellana.

The first column is usually the day Goethe visited the monument: in some cases it is the heading of a short script included in the book.
The second column has the link to the page where the monument is shown.
The third column is used at times for notes or short excerpts and at times for links to long excerpts from the translation by Charles Nisbet which was published in 1885, unless otherwise stated.

Date	Location	Notes or links to excerpts
November 1, 1786	Porta del Popolo	Goethe arrived in Rome through it.
November 3, 1786	Palazzo del Quirinale S. Petronilla by Guercino	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt
November 7, 1786	Stanze di Raffaello	Link to excerpt
November 8, 1786	Palazzo Rondinini	Goethe lived in a building opposite this palace.
November 9, 1786	Piazza della Rotonda (Pantheon) Basilica di S. Pietro	In Rome, the Rotunda, both by its exterior and interior, has moved me to offer a willing homage to its magnificence. In S. Peter's I learned to understand how art, no less than nature, annihilates the artificial measures and dimensions of man.
November 10, 1786	Piramide di Caio Cestio Rovine del Palatino	I was at the Pyramid of Cestius, and in the evening on the Palatine, on the top of which are the ruins of the palace of the Caesars, which stand there like walls of rock. Of all this, however, no idea can be conveyed!
November 11, 1786	Ninfeo di Egeria Tomba di Cecilia Metella Via Appia Antica Piazza del Colosseo	- Link to excerpt - Link to excerpt
November 17, 1786	S. Andrea della Valle Palazzo Farnese	-
November 18, 1786	Farnesina S. Pietro in Montorio Terme di Traiano	- - Link to excerpt
November 22, 1786	Piazza S. Pietro Basilica di S. Pietro Cupola di S. Pietro Cappella Sistina S. Cecilia	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt Link to excerpt Link to excerpt Link to excerpt
November 28, 1786	Cappella Sistina Villa Doria Pamphilj	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt
November 29, 1786	Villa Mellini Villa Madama	-
December 13, 1786	The coming of winter	Link to excerpt
December 25, 1786	Christmas Mass Mask of Medusa	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt
January 6, 1787	Palazzo di Propaganda Fide	Link to excerpt
January 17, 1787	Athena Giustiniani	Link to excerpt
January 18, 1787	S. Antonio Abate	Link to excerpt
January 20, 1787	Spedale di S. Spirito in Sassia	Link to excerpt
January 25, 1787	The Foundation of Rome	Link to excerpt
February 2, 1787	Rome in the Moonlight S. Onofrio	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica a Palazzo Corsini: detail of a painting by Domenico Gargiulo (1609-1675) showing the "maccaronari" (maccaroni eaters) at Naples

As to meal and milk dishes which the cooks of our country know how to dress so variously, the people in this quarter, who have no elaborate cooking apparatus and no mind to linger long at the business, are doubly provided for. Maccaroni, a delicate, thoroughly-kneaded and cooked preparation of fine flour in various shapes, is to be got everywhere of all qualities for a trifle. It is cooked for the most part only in water, some pulverized cheese being added to lard and season the dish.
Goethe - Italian Journey - Naples, May 29 1787 - Translation by Charles Nisbet

Goethe left Rome on February 22, 1787. During the next four months he visited Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum, Caserta, he climbed Mount Vesuvius and he travelled through Sicily.

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica a Palazzo Barberini: (left) A fake ancient fresco by Anton Raphael Mengs depicting Jupiter and Ganymede which was highly praised by Johann Joachim Winckelmann; (right) Portrait of a Young Woman as a Maenad by Angelika Kauffmann. Goethe admired the works by Mengs and the writings by Winckelmann. Angelika Kauffmann accompanied him in many of his Roman wanderings

Date	Location	Notes or quotations
June 27, 1787	Palazzo Colonna	-
June 29, 1787	Illumination of the Cupola	Link to excerpt
June/July, 1787	Angelika Kauffmann	Link to excerpt
July 5, 1787	Fontana dell'Acqua Acetosa	Link to excerpt
July 9, 1787	S. Maria di Aracoeli	For three complete days there has been a festival in the Church of the Ara Coeli in honour of the beatification of two saints of the order of St. Franciscus. The decoration of the church, the music, the illumination and the fireworks at night drew a large crowd of people thither.
July 15, 1787	Farnesina	Link to excerpt
July 16, 1787	Mausoleo d'Augusto	Link to excerpt
July 22, 1787	Palazzo Barberini	Before dinner we drove to the palace Barberini to see the excellent Leonardo da Vinci (now attributed to Bernardino Luini) and the lady-love of Raphael painted by himself.
July 23, 1787	Colonna Trajana	Link to excerpt
July 24, 1787	Villa Patrizi Colonna Antonina	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt
July 1787	Concert at Goethe's house	Link to excerpt
August 1, 1787	SS. Trinità de' Monti	In the evening I bathed in the Tiber, in well-erected bathing-houses, then took a walk to Trinita de' Monti, enjoying the fresh air in the moonlight. The moons here are the moons of fancy or fable.
August 28, 1787	Accademia di Francia	-
September 3, 1787	Obelisco di Augusto	Link to excerpt
September 1787 (summary)	Giardini del Palatino	Link to excerpt Goethe spent several weeks in Frascati and Castelgandolfo
November 1787	Statues at torchlight	Link to excerpt
December 1787 (summary)	S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane S. Paolo fuori le Mura Circo di Caracalla Acqua Paola	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt Link to excerpt Link to excerpt
S. Filippo Neri	S. Onofrio	Link to excerpt
January 1788	Accademia degli Arcadi	Link to excerpt
Description of the Roman Carnival	Piazza del Popolo Palazzo Ruspoli Accademia di Francia	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt Link to excerpt The Roman Carnival is not really a festival given for the people but one the people give themselves... unlike the religious festivals in Rome, the Carnival does not dazzle the eye: there are no fireworks, no illuminations, no brilliant processions. All that happens is that, at a given signal, everyone has leave to be as mad and foolish as he likes, and almost everything, except fisticuffs and stabbing, is permissible. The difference between the social orders seems to be abolished for the time being; everyone accosts everyone else, all good-naturedly accept whatever happens to them, and the insolence and licence of the feast is balanced only by the universal good humour. During this time, even to this day, the Roman rejoices because, though it postponed the festival of the Saturnalia with its liberties for a few weeks, the birth of Christ did not succeed in abolishing it.
February 1788	View of Campo Vaccino	Link to excerpt
March 1, 1788	Galleria di Palazzo Borghese	Link to excerpt
March 1788	The Seven Churches Villa Mattei	Link to excerpt Link to excerpt
April 11, 1788	Casts of the French Academy	Link to excerpt
April 1788	Farewell to Rome	My farewell to Rome was heralded in a particularly solemn manner: for three consecutive nights a full moon stood in a cloudless sky, diffusing its magic over the immense city, and more than ever before, I felt myself transported into another simpler and greater world. At the end of each day, spent in distractions mingled with sadness, I took a walk with a few friends, and on one evening I went out quite alone. After having wandered along the Corso - perhaps for the last time - I walked up to the Capitol, which rose like an enchanted palace in the desert. The statue of Marcus Aurelius reminded me of the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, for it seemed to be intimating to the wanderer that he was venturing upon something unusual. Nevertheless I walked down by the stairs at the back. There I was suddenly confronted by the dark triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, which cast a still darker shadow. In the solitude of the Via Sacra the well-known objects seemed alien and ghost-like. But when I approached the grand ruins of the Colosseum and looked through the gate into the interior, I must frankly confess that a shudder ran through me, and I quickly returned home. The book ends with a quotation from Ovid.

You may wish to see the tomb of Julius August, Goethe's only adult son, at the Protestant Cemetery of Rome (d. 1830).

Read What Dante Saw.
Read What Lord Byron Saw.
Read What Henry James Saw.
Read What Charles Dickens Saw.
Read What Mark Twain Saw.
Read What William Dean Howells Saw.
Read Their Travel Journals (excerpts from journals by British and American Travellers in 1594-1848).
Read Dan Brown's Spaghetti Bolognaise (excerpts from Angels and Demons)