2. THE ETERNAL MOMENT

“Behold Vorta!”
The driver guiding the small convoy carrying Miss Raby and Colonel Leyland points out a beautiful alpine village to the passengers. This is how the Ampezzo vally makes one of its first appearances in world literature. The Vorta that Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970) mentions in the story The Eternal Moment is in fact Cortina d’Ampezzo, which at the beginning of the 20th century was known as Anpezo/Hayden and was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Forster—author of masterpieces such as A Passage to India, A Room with a View, Maurice, Howards End conceived this story in Cortina in 1902, wrote it in 1904, and first published it in 1905 in the Independent Review. The protagonist, Miss Raby, is a writer who set her most important novel, also titled The Eternal Moment, in Vorta. That novel, in addition to making the author famous, Forster writes, “had also made the reputation of Vorta.” Can a book really have the power to affect a place to such an extent that it changes its character forever? This is a question that could just as well be posed to the many writers who still come here today to meet readers and draw inspiration from the Ampezzo mountains. Miss Raby returns to Vorta and finds it irreversibly changed, as often happens when people return to a holiday destination after many years. She complains, feeling betrayed. And yet, as we read this story, we wonder – has the alpine valley changed, or perhaps, more importantly, has the perspective of the one who observes it changed?