Goethe drives for the last time through the endless life of the city.
On the evening of 2 June, with the Duchess of Giovane, a cultivated young German lady.
At night on the Molo, in a single glance: the moon, the clouds, the reflection on the sea, the lighthouse lamps, the fire of Vesuvius.
The corvette built in America, the cabin, the bills and farewells; the Marchese Berio eager to meet the author of Werther.
Tischbein proposes the young landscape painter Kniep as a permanent companion.
The pact with Kniep: they will live and travel together, he will only draw, and the outlines will belong to Goethe.
In the evening Kniep draws from the windows at Salerno a view that spares all description; Goethe imagines how fine it would have been to study here in the days of the School.
In the light two-wheeled carriage, taking turns at the reins, Goethe and Kniep cross the gorge between woods and rocks.
Hamilton has made a fine life for himself: rooms in the English taste and a corner view perhaps unique, and after ranging through every realm of creation he has arrived at a beautiful woman.
A lava flow invisible from Naples is descending towards Ottaviano: a third ascent.
