Felix Mendelssohn spent ten months wandering through Italy when he was about 21 years old. He saw Venice and Rome, Bologna and Florence, Naples and Pompeii. He sketched and painted watercolors of his impressions. To fulfill a commission from the Philharmonic Society in London for a new symphony, he composed his musical impressions of the country. The result, Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, the “Italian,” is today’s Midday Masterpiece.