After separating from Edith, Gissing revisited Italy in 1897–1898, as told in a travel book, "By the Ionian Sea" (1901). While in Siena he wrote "Charles Dickens: a Critical Study". In Rome he met H. G. Wells and his wife and did research for a romantic novel set in the 6th century, "Veranilda". Meanwhile "The Town Traveller", written in the final months of his marriage in 1897, was published. After a short stay with his friend Bertz in Potsdam, he returned to England in 1898 and moved to Dorking in Surrey.