The last visions

The flag of San Marino showing the three towers of Monte Titano

The Third Tower: journeys in Italy by Antal Szerb.
A harmadik torony translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix.
Pushkin Press, 2014 (1936).

I felt bereft when Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy stopped mid-sentence only in sight of Lyon. Mr Yorick was due to travel down western Italy via Turin, Milan, Florence and Rome as far as Naples but, unhappily for all, the full account was cut short by the small matter of the writer’s death.

Fortunately there was Antal Szerb’s The Third Tower recently published in English to console me, though the Hungarian’s travels were essentially down the east coast of Italy only as far south as San Marino.

But, just as with Sterne’s writings, this was as much — if not more — about the person than the places visited.