Saturday, August 14:
R. was restless early in the night, but it got better, and he woke up refreshed. After breakfast I visit the cambio [exchange], which I resolve to show him, and the gallery, to which I shall not take him. At lunch we talk about all sorts of things, including the cunning of the Greeks, and he says, “Their abilities were their gods.”
Thoughts of settling in Italy: “I should feel safe from harm,” he says, but it would be a means of dreaming away one’s existence. “I still want to write Parsifal, then symphonies, then I will complete various bits of my work.” He becomes absorbed in the thought that nobody understands anything about him, that nobody could represent him after his death.
We go for a drive through the city, which pleases R. greatly, then go via the Helbigs’ house, S. Erminia, to the Tiber valley. R. enjoys it, but he is run down in the evening, and a slight error of diet again spoils the early part of the night for him. A letter from Lulu tells us that Antonio has been stealing in our house, and R. at once decides to abandon the adoption. My father is said to be in the vicinity, we invite him here; Frau Helbig wants him to stay in her house, which puts R. into a rage!