To Rafael Sastre González
Hotel Danieli
Venice. December 15, 1939
Querido Rafael:
El hotel Bristol en Roma ha desaparecido, o casi, pues lo están derribando, con intención de volverlo a construir. Dicen que la obra durará dos años, de modo que yo estoy sin “domicilio.” Había pensado tomar una habitación en otra fonda de Roma; pero al estallar la guerra, cuando se temia que se extendiera a Italia, avisaron oficialmente a los ancianos y personas inútiles de evitar las poblaciones grandes del mediodía y oeste de Italia. Como yo estaba en Cortina y tenia que pasar por Venecia, se mi ocurrió quedarme aquí, donde me conocen de muchos años en esta fonda, y donde siempre lo he pasado bien. Tengo una habitación con vista al puerto y al mar, y no encuentro ningun inconveniente en que el invierno aquí sea algo mas húmedo y frío que en Roma. No lo es tanto cómo en Boston, ó como en Inglaterra, y a pesar de mis 76 años, que cumplo mañana, espero poderlo resistir.
Translation:
Dear Rafael:
The hotel Bristol in Rome has disappeared, or almost, for they are tearing it down, with the intention of rebuilding it. They say that the project will take two years, so I am without “domicile.” I had intended to take a room in another hotel in Rome; but when the war broke out, when they feared that it would spread to Italy, they officially warned the elderly and people who were not needed to avoid the large towns of the south and west of Italy. Since I was in Cortina and had to pass through Venice, it occurred to me to stay here, where they have known me for many years in this hotel, and where I have always enjoyed it. I have a room with a view of the port and the sea, and it doesn’t bother me at all that the winter is a little more humid and cold here than in Rome. It isn’t so humid and cold as in Boston, or as in England, and in spite of my 76 years, which I celebrate tomorrow, I hope to be able to stand it.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Six, 1937-1940. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: Collection of Sra. Rafael (Adelaida Hernandez) Sastre, Ávila, Spain.