page_title: Italian Journey
section_title: Itinerary
hierarchical_section_title: Italian Journey / Itinerary
caption_attribution_description: English: Goethe's Italian Journey between September 1786 and May 1788
context_page_description: Italian Journey is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's report on his travels to Italy from 1786 to 1788 that was published in 1816 & 1817. The book is based on Goethe's diaries and is smoothed in style, lacks the spontaneity of his diary report and is augmented with the addition of afterthoughts and reminiscences.
  At the beginning of September 1786, when Goethe had just turned 37, he "slipped away", in his words, from his duties as Privy Councillor in the Duchy of 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 the stormy play Götz von Berlichingen, and he took what became a licensed leave of absence. By May 1788 he had travelled to Italy via Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass and visited Lake Garda, Verona, Vicenza, Venice, Bologna, Rome and Alban Hills, Naples and Sicily. He wrote many letters to a number of friends in Germany, which he later used as the basis for Italian Journey.
context_section_description: The Italian Journey is divided sequentially as follows:
  Part One
  September 1786: from Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic) to the Brenner.
  --, from the Brenner to Verona, via Bolzano, Trento, Torbole, Malcesine.
  --, from Verona to Venice, via Vicenza, Padua.
  October 1786: Venice.
  --, from Ferrara to Rome, via Cento, Bologna, Florence, Perugia, Assisi, Foligno, Terni, Civita Castellana.
  October 1786-February 1787: first Roman visit.
  Part Two
  February–March 1787: Naples, via Velletri, Fondi.
  March–May 1787: Sicily, including Palermo, Alcamo, Castelvetrano, Sciacca, Agrigento (Girgenti), Caltanisetta, Catania, Taormina, Messina.
  May–June 1787: Naples.
  Part Three: June 1787-April 1788: second Roman visit.
caption: Goethe's Italian Journey between September 1786 and May 1788
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