The Latest at Goethe

Forget about road movies! Rail movies are the latest trend. To give this hypothesis just a little credibility, we put journalists Beppe Severgnini and Marc Spörrle back on the rails. This time, the two have to make their way from Moscow to Lisbon.

These two seem to understand one another. Well, perhaps understand is not quite the right word for it, when we see Beppe Severgnini’s exasperated expression in Milan when he asks Marc Spörrle the name of the Inter’s goalkeeper and Marc answers, “Ferrari.” But, they must like one another or how else can you explain why, after an eight-day train ride through Germany and Italy together, the two journalists are now willing to take up on yet another ambitious undertaking? In two weeks, Severgnini from the Corriere della Sera and Spörrle, his colleague from the Zeit, now want to experience half of Europe by rail, from Moscow to Lisbon.

The two will have to cover 6,000 kilometres of rails on their way from east to west, from the steppes to the ocean. Between 29 April and 14 May 2011 Severgnini and Spörrle will get to know Europe’s railways: Who might they meet in Moscow? What stories will they be able to tell from Poland, the Czech Republic or France? The journalists want to find out what preconceptions Germans and Italians have of other European countries. Will the prejudices be confirmed or refuted? What do Europeans think about Germans and Italians? What adventures and secrets does our continent have in store? Every day, Severgnini and Spörrle will produce an entry for their travel blog and a three-minute video to report on their experiences.

“Va bene” 2010 – On the Rails

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Of course, it’s an ideal opportunity for the two travellers to get to know one another better. In 2010 they met for the first time at the Berlin main railway station and – at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut Italy – ventured on a train trip that didn’t end until they got to Palermo and apparently was not without consequences. The Goethe-Institut wanted to know what the two journalists would tell each other about their own countries. During the first stretch of the journey, Spörrle showed his Italian colleague Germany, and once over the Brenner Pass, Severgnini took over as tour guide. They both learned a great deal about their counterpart’s country; Severgnini now knows that breakfast can consist of more than a cup of coffee and Spörrle now knows who Inter Milan’s goalkeeper is – we assume.

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