I've got a touch of Stendhal syndrome!

View of Florence at sunset

What is it with me that whenever I watch a documentary of Italy, I weep?  We have visited twice and have been to a handful of the large cities, including Florence above, and, when there, I'm almost always on the verge of tears!

I read about "Stendhal syndrome" a few years back, an illness given this name back in 1979 and named after French author Henri-Marie Beyle.  Stendhal was one of his many pseudonyms.  

 Bridges over the Arno River, Florence

The following from Wikipedia:

"Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome, hyperkulturemia, or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and  even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art is in a single place.  The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world.

The illness is named after the famous 19th-century French author Stendhal, (pseudonym of Henri-Marie Beyle), who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.

Although there are many descriptions of people becoming dizzy and fainting while taking in Florentine art, especially at the Uffizi, dating from the early 19th century on, the syndrome was only named in 1979, when it was described by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, who observed and described more than 100 similar cases among tourists and visitors in Florence."

Head of a Capri Girl

John Singer Sargent, 1878

Italian Summer

The rose stood out

Red against the golden wall

The sun comes up through the silken drapes

The room begins to glow

All in cream-colored ivories and soft yellows

You say hello

Put down that guitar and handed me a rose

At the end of the Italian Summer

It rains fast and it rains hard

The wind blows through you

It tears you apart

Ooh it's so romantic

Hey it's so soulful

The rain falls down

And the thunder rolls

The sun fades out

And the mountains grow tall

The mists rush in and they take it all

From the islands you see Li Galli and Capri

I remember it all

Love was everywhere

You just had to fall

Stevie Nicks

View of Capri, 1845

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Li Galli - The Roosters

Li Galli is an archipelago of islands off the Amalfi Coast, 

the three main ones being Gallo Lungo, La Castellucia and La Rotonda.

In the late 1960s Rudolph Nureyev bought Gallo Lungo for 3 billion Italian lira and resided in the villa built in the 1930s by Russian choreographer and dancer Leonide Massine.  Nureyev lived there for 26 years until his death.  

We love Italy and are planning another trip in 2012, ending with a train trip to Paris, where I'll probably experience Paris syndrome, apparently the French equivalent of Stendhal syndrome!

"Something happens in Italy:

people cross into

new emotional fields."

Lisa St Aubin de Téran