Freud's keen and sensitive enjoyment of Italy's classical remains had for him a deep personal significance. The north of Europe seemed to correspond with the reality principle, the south with the pleasure principle. Italy's softness and beauty and especially the visible evidences of man's early stages of development had an irresistible appeal for him. In spite of his 'traveling phobia' he traveled extensively, and enjoyed his journeys with an almost boyish gusto. His use of the word 'phobia' was clearly different from the later meaning: such anxiety as he had at the beginning of the trips never inhibited him from going. His anxieties and depressions, described in the Fliess letters, vanished on these journeys. His hatred of Vienna was one element in this sense of release.