To I. L. Leontyev, 1891. Florence.
И. Л. ЛЕОНТЬЕВУ (ЩЕГЛОВУ), 30 марта (11 апреля) 1891 г. Флоренция.
Headnote
Dated 30 March (11 April) 1891, from Florence, part of the celebrated 1891 journey through Western Europe that Chekhov made with his publisher Suvorin (the trip proposed and accepted in the preceding 5 March letter).
The card itself is a single ornamental sentence: Chekhov personifies three stops on the itinerary – Venice ("Bella Venezia") with her gondolas, Bologna with her arcades, and Florence with the Venus de’ Medici – and has them jointly send their greetings to his friend, addressed by the playful French nickname "Jean." He signs off with his own equally playful Italianized alter ego, "Antonio," in keeping with the touristic, self-mocking persona he adopts for the whole series of postcards sent home during this trip. The card closes with the address panel as written on the back – the addressee’s name and Petersburg street address, partly rendered in Italian/transliterated form ("Russia, Petersburgo,Sr Leontieff") as befits a card being mailed from Italy.
The tone is light and purely social: no news, no business, just a travel greeting to a close friend.