Wolfgang Goethe
The first Grand Tourist, German author Goethe (1749– 1832) rented rooms on the Corso, now a museum, between 1786 and 1788 (see SS Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso). His book Italian Journey laid the blueprint for later tourists who came to Italy to learn from its history and to complete their education.
Wolfgang Goethe
John Keats
The English Romantic poet (1795–1821) came to Rome in 1820 for the antiquities and Italian lifestyle – and to bolster his ailing health, which nevertheless failed. Keats died at age 25 of tuberculosis in an apartment by the Spanish Steps (see Keats-Shelley Memorial).
Henry James
The New York author (1843– 1916) spent half his life in Europe. Rome features in Daisy Miller, A Roman Holiday, Portrait of a Lady and his travelogue Italian Hours. In an 1869 letter he proclaimed “At last – for the first time – I live! It beats everything: it leaves the Rome of your fancy – your education – nowhere.”
Alberto Moravia
One of Italy’s top modern authors (1907–90) wrote about Rome in Racconti Romani, La Romana, La Ciociara, Gli Indifferenti and La Noia, most of which have been translated.
Edward Gibbon
When English parliamentarian Gibbon (1737–94) stood in the Forum for the first time in 1764, he was struck by how “…each memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once present to my eye.” He resolved to write the history of Rome, and by 1788 had finished his seminal work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Gore Vidal
The prolific American writer (b.1925) has been a resident of Rome and Ravello, south of Naples, for decades. His Roman experiences have informed such books as The Judgment of Paris, Julian and his memoir Palimpsest.
Virgil
Poet and propagandist (70–19 BC). His epic The Aeneid tied Rome’s foundation to the Trojan War.
Ovid
Greatest Roman Classical poet (43 BC–AD 17). His Metamorphoses codified many Roman myths, but Ars Amatoria detailed how to entice women and got him exiled.
Tacitus
Tacitus (55–117) wrote Annals and Histories covering Rome’s early Imperial history; Life of Agricola his father-in-law’s governorship of Britain.
Juvenal
Romans invented satire; Juvenal (60–130) perfected the form in his poems.
Pliny the Younger
The letters (Epistulae) of Pliny (61–113) to prominent figures give us a glimpse of imperial society.
Suetonius
Historian (70–125) who wrote the lives of the Caesars.
Petronius
Petronius (70–130) parodied Roman life in Satiricon.
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