Excursion to the Art and Literature Tour Days: The Threshold to Paradise

9:00 - 10:00 a.m. Bus trip from Sils Maria to Soglio

10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Cultural walk through Soglio, the birthplace of the "Paradise Painter" Samuele Giovanoli. Visit to the Palazzo Salis with its enchanting French garden. The former "Pension Willy" once housed both Giovanni Segantini and Rainer Maria Rilke. Segantini chose the spectacular mountain panorama that can be admired from Soglio as the setting for the first part of his Alpine triptych, the painting "Becoming." Rilke was particularly fascinated by the historic, "melodic" garden and the library of the Palazzo Salis, where he stayed in the summer of 1919. His hope of being able to continue his work on the Duino Elegies here, which had been interrupted by the First World War, was not fulfilled. Nevertheless, his ideas about a future "place for elegies" took concrete form here. Furthermore, a text of great importance to Rilke's understanding of poetry, which remained unique within his oeuvre, was written in Soglio and which we will present in more detail on site.

12:15 - 13:30 Lunch at Palazzo Salis

13:30 - 16:00 Walk through the chestnut groves from Brentan to Castasegna. Short readings and presentations will take place at selected stops.

16:00 Return trip from Castasegna to Sils Maria