Vedi Napoli e dimentica la morte. Napoli nella visione di alcuni viaggiatori russi

The Bay of Naples has always fascinated intellectuals, writers and foreign artists who, especially at the time of Grand Tour, pushed on to Southern Italy in order to capture landscape views, observe colourful costumes and expand, thus, their cultural and experiential knowledge. In the context of travel literature, the Russian travellers in the region of Naples constitute a chapter of exception: since the eighteenth century, they imprinted in journals or, even, in official reports memoirs, memories, impressions, sketches and lyrical sketches. These, by the time, helped to create a typically Russian image of Naples, so that we can speak of a real ‘Russian literature of Naples’ (russkaja neapolitana). Exemplary in this sense are the travel notes of the stol’nik P. A. Tolstoy dating back to 1699, but published for the first time in 1888. The Russian dignitary, far from drawing up an official guide to travel, seems to be amazed by the “extremely prodigious wonders” he saw and, therefore, ends up to filter the Neapolitan reality through the prism of its subjectivity. The proofs and the interest of Russian travellers for the places of Naples and its surroundings intensify during the nineteenth century and focus, in particular, on the vitality and gaiety of the Neapolitan people that clash not only with the miserable conditions faced by the inhabitants of the city, but also with the threat of destruction and death represented by the terrible volcano. This paper covers a selection of annotated impressions in the travel diaries and letters of some Russian travellers who, recognizing the uniqueness of Naples, could not fail to impress with words all the beauty and radiance of this Southern Italy pleasant land.