Across the River and into the Trees

Ernest Hemingway visited Italy for the first time in thirty years in the fall of 1948. Across the River and into the Trees, the narrative of Richard Cantwell, a wartorn American colonel stationed in Italy at the end of WWII, and his love for a young Italian countess, was inspired by his reacquaintance with Venice, a city he adored. Across the River and into the Trees is Hemingway's defiant answer to the vast dehumanising horrors of World war ii —. It is a sad, bittersweet monument to love that overpowers reason, to the human spirit's resilience, and to the worldweary beauty and majesty of Venice.