Casa di Goethe

Casa di Goethe

Goethe's famous “Italian journey” – searching for traces

“My longing to see this land was more than ripe”

In 1786, Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) fulfilled a lifelong dream. Exhausted from the government affairs and driven by the need for self-determination, he set off in the early hours of the 3rd September 1786 in a stagecoach – heading for Italy at last! For nearly two years, Goethe stayed in the land of his longing. He travelled the Italian boot until May 1788, enraptured by the landscapes, the nature and the places he visited, yet he spent most of the time in Rome (“Now at last, I have arrived in the First City of the World!“).

The very apartment in which Goethe lived, incognito at first, together with the painters J. H. W. Tischbein, J. G. Schütz and F. Bury, has been the site since 1997 of the only German museum outside of Germany, furnished with great dedication and attention to detail: The Casa di Goethe. Here you will be taken along on Goethe’s famous “Italian journey“ and you will gain valuable, exciting and also amusing insights into the “perhaps happiest time of his life”.

Enjoy the meticulously compiled permanent exhibition “Goethe in Italy” as well as temporary exhibitions on German-Italian themes that are well worth seeing. Walk in the steps of Goethe, linger for a few moments in his bedroom and admire the only Goethe special library in Italy, which you can also consult by prior appointment.

The Casa is a vibrant hub of German-Italian cultural exchange and a meeting place where artists, writers and many others demonstrate new paths to friendship between the nations. Here you can draw inspiration from events accompanying the exhibitions in both German and Italian, from lectures, readings and colloquia. You will definitely come back again!

Gallery

Casa di Goethe in Rome