Presentation of 'Journey to Vesuvius' by Duque de Rivas

Arriving in all Italian bookstores on February 9, 2024, 'Journey to Vesuvius' by Duque de Rivas, Ángel de Saavedra, translated from Spanish by Aurora De Lucia, published by Colonnese in the historic series 'Silvia's Mirror', with a series of period illustrations, will be presented on Thursday, February 22, at 6pm at Feltrinelli Books and Music (via Santa Caterina, 23 - Naples); participants include: Aurora De Lucia (translator of the volume), Ana Navarro Ortega (director of the 'Cervantes' Institute, Naples), Marco Ottaiano (professor at the University of Naples 'L'Orientale'), moderated by: Giuseppe Pesce. This evocative mid-nineteenth century tale gathers the impressions of the tiring yet exciting excursion to reach the summit of Vesuvius at night, to better appreciate the lava fire and enjoy the wonderful spectacle of the sunrise. Spanish ambassador to Naples, the Duke of Rivas moves with curiosity, intertwining the careful and amazed exploration with historical memories of ancient eruptions, until reaching what he defines as 'the most beautiful scene in the world': the dawn in which, in a whirlwind of contrasting passions, the sun rises on good and evil, on beauty and wickedness, in one of the most enchanting and terrible places on earth. The story is accompanied by a series of 19th century illustrations; but among the many traditional prints that had the popular ascent to Vesuvius as their theme, the engravings of the volume 'Sketches of Vesuvius' by John Auldjo, published in Naples in 1832, stand out in particular, which seem to exactly mark the route that the Duke of Rivas followed just a few years later. 'Since my arrival in Naples, the object that has most occupied my imagination has been Vesuvius, this superb giant that stands alone and isolated in the middle of the most beautiful and sweet plain in the world, which dominates the most cheerful gulf of the Mediterranean': so wrote Ángel de Saavedra y Ramírez de Baquedano (1791-1865), who arrived in Naples as ambassador in 1844. Poet, playwright and historian, the Duke of Rivas was already famous for the theatrical work 'Don Álvaro' or 'the force of fate' (1835), and is counted among the protagonists of Spanish Romanticism.