Italy: Tracing Keats’ voyage to Rome 200 years ago

Rome: The Keats-Shelley House in Rome is marking the bicentenary of the 1820 voyage to Italy of Romantic poet John Keats and painter Joseph Severn, with special virtual events and a timeline of key dates on social media.

The house museum, located at the foot of the Spanish Steps, highlights the difficult journey which began on 17 September 1820 when Keats and Severn set sail from London, bound for Naples, aboard the Maria Crowther sailing brig.

The hazardous voyage is described by Andrew Motion in his biography of Keats: “Their journey along the south coast of England was disrupted by a series of terrible storms and exasperating calms. Often their boat was driven backwards the way it had come. Occasionally the captain allowed his passengers ashore while he waited for a favourable wind.”

Keats, who travelled to Italy with Severn to recover his health, disembarked in Naples on 31 October 1820, after 10 days of quarantine on board the ship due to an outbreak of typhus in London.

It was Keats’ 25th birthday and he only had another four months to live. The onward journey to Rome took weeks, with the pair finally arriving in the Eternal City on 15 November 1820.

Ahead of the bicentenaries of the deaths of Keats and Shelley, who died in 1821 and 1822 respectively, the Keats-Shelley House is also raising awareness of its Keats-Shelley200 campaign.