In 1786, thirty-seven-year-old Johann Wolfgang Goethe set off for Italy. He traveled incognito, under the name of merchant Meller, and visited Lake Garda, Verona, Vicenza, Venice, Bologna, Rome and the Alban Hills, Naples and Sicily. "We are all pilgrims striving for Italy; with trusting joy we worship the scattered bones of the dead," wrote Goethe in Venice. In 1788, the poet returned to his homeland, and in 1816–1817, the text of his "Italian Journey" was published for the first time. Having been written many years after the author's return from the trip, Goethe's work differed from traditional travel notes. However, based on diaries and letters from those years, the "Italian Journey" still retains the freshness of impressions, supplemented by mature reflections and polished to true literary perfection. A remarkable fact: Joseph Brodsky, while compiling his famous list of books that everyone should read, included another of Goethe's works— the delightful "Italian Journey"— in addition to "Faust."
