Guido Gozzano (1883-1916), a distinguished Italian poet of the early twentieth century, embarked for India in February 1912, ostensibly to treat the tuberculosis he would die from a few years later. His trip lasted three months; all told he spent six weeks on the subcontinent. Before leaving home he had engaged to send back dispatches to La Stampa; after appearing there, his letters from India were collected and issued posthumously as Verso la cuna del mondo (1917), now published in English for the first time. The extent of Gozzano's travels - to Ceylon, Goa, Agra, Jaipur - makes one wonder...