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Literary Rome: The Expatriate Writer Abroad

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Apr 6, 2006
4.5 of 5 stars based on 4 votes
Italy and expatriates go together like peanut butter and jelly. So it's not surprising that Rome has attracted more than its fair share of writers--English, German, American, and otherwise--who have found both artistic inspiration and a temporary home in the Eternal City. This is a very small sample of writers and their links to places around the city; as always is the case with Rome, there is so much more to discover.
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1. Keats Shelley House
Keats-Shelley House, Rome, Lazio
The house where Keats died (at the age of 25) is located near the Piazza di Spagna; at the time Keats lived there, and for many years after, this area was known for attracting a great deal of expatriate writers and artists.
2. Café Greco
Caffe Greco, Rome, Lazio
This lovely café--suposedly the oldest in Rome--with its warm red and gold interiors has served writers such as Keats (who lived nearby), Shelley, Goethe, d'Annunzio, Dickens, and many others.
3. Statue of Byron in the Borghese Gardens
Borghese Gardens, Rome, Lazio
Byron took a side trip to Rome in 1817, where he stayed in the Piazza di Spagna--just across from where, three years later, Keats would live. Byron's sojourn in Rome inspired his famous descriptions of the Colosseum in the poem "Manfred" and Canto IV of "Childe Harold. " A statue of the poet resides in the stately Borghese Gardens.
4. Hotel de Russie
Hotel De Russie, Rome, Lazio
Ave price: $767
It's impossible not to mention "Literary Rome" without making significant note of Henry James. James wrote extensively of his travels in Rome and other parts of the country in his collection of travel writings, Italian Hours, and set his novel Portrait of a Lady and his story "Daisy Miller" here as well. He occasionally stayed at the Hotel de Russie while in Rome, as did Charles Dickens.
5. Protestant Cemetery
Protestant Cemetery, Rome, Lazio
Henry James's close friend, Constance Fenimore Woolson, is buried here, as are both Keats and Shelley.
6. Nathaniel Hawthorne
Capitoline Museum (Museo Capitolino), Rome, Lazio
While living in Rome with his family, Hawthorne was inspired by Praxiteles' statue of a faun in the Capitoline Museum; this inspiration led to his Italian romance novel, The Marble Faun.
7. Casa di Goethe
http://www.casadigoethe.it/info.htm
Johann Wolfgang Goethe lived in Rome for two years (1786-1788); both writer and city left memorable impressions on one another, as this tiny little museum located in the Piazza del Popolo can attest.
8. Palazzo Barberini
Barberini Palace, Rome, Lazio
Go to the Palazzo Barberini to see the portrait of Beatrice Cenci, the woman who inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley to write his play The Cenci.
Explore locations featured in this goList: Rome