In the morning at the Museum; in the afternoon a drive over the Posilipo, very beautiful! R. likes the great life here very much, and it is indeed the liveliest city imaginable; popular in the most exuberant sense of the word. At the museum today I looked only at the antique statues and wall-paintings; a grave and sublime impression, as though the repose of immortality lay above the convulsions of existence. Outside, once more, the most vivid reality; I often think of silent, poor Venice where I would feel at home.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins [© Jo Cousins | WAGNER Salon]