Italy and Germany: Identity and Alterity

Golo Maurer

European travelers to Italy are usually “repeat offenders” who embroider ideas about foreign cultures and one’s own identity onto pre-existing patterns of travel and reception that they register either consciously or unconsciously. As autobiographical acts, these journeys combine imitated or rejected travel patterns with identity-generating rituals that, in the case of Germany and Italy, preceded, accompanied, and sometimes even shaped the political processes of unification.