Italy: Goethe’s birthday celebrated at Casa di Goethe in Rome

Rome: The Casa di Goethe on Via del Corso marked J. W. Goethe’s birthday on 28 August by opening for free from midday until 20.00.

This year, due to covid-19 precautions, there wasn’t the traditional “brindisi” with a glass of Würzburger Stein wine at midday (the hour of Goethe’s birth in 1749).

According to the museum, Goethe considered an alcoholic by today’s standards: he consumed three bottles of wine each day.

The museum, which was founded in 1997 and is the world’s only German foreign-based museum, is housed in the building in which Goethe stayed during his Roman sojourn from 1786 to 1788, together with Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein and other German artists.