Grand Tour

As British travelers were the most numerous and assiduous practitioners of the tour in Italy, we can take one of their “ideal itineraries” as an example.
A British traveler would land at Genoa if arriving by sea (from Marseilles or Nice), or in Turin if coming by land through the Mont Cenis Pass, the most frequently taken of the possible routes into Italy (although the St. Bernard and Simplon Passes were also used). The city of departure determined the subsequent route, along the coast or through the interior. The first important stop was Florence, through which people passed on their way to Rome. The capital was the city where travelers stayed the longest, often setting off from home in the month of September so as to be able to get there in time for Christmas, a religious festival whose rituals they found fascinating, and remaining there until Easter, or the feast of St. Peter, famous for the fireworks let off from Castel Sant’Angelo. Between the Easter holidays and the end of June they would make an excursion to Naples and its environs. The journey ended in Campania. The return leg provided for a stop at Loreto and then, passing through Ferrara and Padua, visits to Venice, preferably in the month of February so as to be there for the Carnival, Vicenza and Verona. Finally the traveler would leave Italy through France, Switzerland or Austria.

To Matthias Bruen, an American traveler in the year 1822, the Italian itinerary par excellence was reminiscent of the course of human life and suggested a significant metaphor: “the plain of the Po Valley and the valley of the Arno are as smooth, blooming and beautiful as youth; we come to Rome to acquire the eye, the experience and the reflection that befit adulthood. After the bustle one turns to the comforts congenial to old age, and that is to the sun, the air and the luxuriant nature of Naples. Finally Paestum appears to us like the sunset that concludes our weary pilgrimage and puts an end to our labors” (Brilli, 1987).