Travels Abroad with Goethe's Italian Journey

Travels Abroad with Goethe's Italian Journey

Foreign travel, I think, is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have in life. You never really get a chance in life to explore who you really are and what you believe until you're able to leave your daily life and spend time in a place where everything's drastically different.

Of course, not all travel is mind opening and horizon broadening. Some people just go abroad in a tourist frame of mind. The only thing they want to do when they visit somewhere else is visit famous sites, eat local food, and buy presents for those back home. Tourists really have no interest in local cultures and ways of life, and don't want to think about these things while on vacation.

I admit: I've been both a traveler and a tourist in my life. Who hasn't? When I went to Disneyland, I wasn't interested in the local cultural structure and values of the inhabitants of Anaheim; I just wanted to get my picture taken with The Little Mermaid. And being a tourist is fine in its time and place, but when one goes places as a travel, ah that's when the really life changing experiences begin.

This past week, my group did a presentation on the Italian Journey of Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, and while I didn't do the hardcore analysis of the literary text (I did the biography and web encoding), the topics my group discussed are still an interesting look into the character of a traveler and his discoveries abroad.

What I've gathered from his diary entries is that Goethe went as a traveller and tried his best to understand the spirit of the Italian people, not just savour local wines and see the works of great Renaissance artists. He seems to be staying with Italian friends and trying to experience the daily life of inhabitants in Rome and Naples and other places he stayed.

I myself have had two major experiences at being a traveler. In November 2000, I was lucky enough to be accepted on a homestay in Japan. This meant that for a week and a half I got to visit Sapporo, Japan while living with the Suzuki family and attending Nishi High School with their daughter who was about my age. Much like Goethe who had been told about Italy all his life by his father and