Zweig remained in Salzburg during the immediate post-war period (1919-1921). Eventually society settled into a new normal, food became more available, and the risk of widespread unrest and revolution seemingly diminished. Although public sentiment in Europe at that time was markedly anti-German and Austrian, Zweig decided to vacation in Italy. He was struck by what a warm welcome he received from both officials and old acquaintances. All over Europe, the wounds of war began to heal and people of different nationalities embraced one another again. And yet, he is struck by how naive they all were: They had already once witnessed the rise of damaging, extremist ideologies, they had seen their continent fracture, and somehow they were sure that it couldn’t happen again. He himself believed that Italy’s Benito Mussolini was a fringe figure and ignored fascist groups. He realizes now that Europeans were lulled into a false sense of security because on the individual level, relationships between people of different nationalities had begun to mend. No one realized that this spirit of reconciliation didn’t extend to governments and political factions.

Although his reception in Italy had been friendly, he also encountered fascism for the first time, in the form of groups of uniformed young men marching and singing in the streets.