Grand Tour

Despite being a magnet for travelers from many different countries, it was long thought that Italy had been a paradise unknown to its own inhabitants, since the Grand Tour was linked to the fame of those who came there from overseas. In fact the way that its habitual residents set about exploring and discovering Italy was quite different from that of foreign visitors, but equally worthy of respect, as Luca Clerici has shown (Clerici, 1999). His research has allowed him to demonstrate that “the idea that Italians were ignorant of their land is not based on any real understanding of the phenomenon” through the collation of an extensive bibliography, “unequivocal proof of the propensity of Italians to travel the length and the breadth of the islands and peninsula, keeping a written record of the journey”. The most striking difference between the journeys made by foreigners and by Italians lies in the extent of the territory covered and described. Full and comprehensive tours were rare (although there are some partial examples, such as the Relationi delle città di Bologna, Fiorenza, Genoua, e Lucca, con la notitia di tutte le cose più degne, e curiose delle medesime, descritte dal co. Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato, or “Reports on the Cities of Bologna, Florence, Genoa, and Lucca, with Information on All the More Worthy, and Curious Things of the Same, Described by Ct. Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato”). Instead there was “a large number of journeys in more restricted geographical areas”. This focus on the local, undoubtedly connected with the historic subdivision of the peninsula (something which prompted expressions of irritation and derision on the part of foreigners), was often motivated by a sort of parochialism, a desire to “illustrate and enhance the writer’s home region in the eyes of other Italians”.
In confirmation of this distinctive choice of itinerary, Clerici notes that, with the exception of the places that formed an inevitable part of Italian travel agendas as well, “this often provincial character often” resulted in “thorough surveys of areas unknown to foreigners”. In this panorama, finally, he points out that the key aspect of the journeys made by Italians was an interest in the character of cities that reflected “an inverse tendency to the historical process of appreciation” of these areas, so that it was at “the moment when the physiognomy of the country was being transformed from an agricultural to an industrial one [...] that Italians travelers shrank away”.

These theoretical premises are fully borne out when we take a closer look at Italian travel literature. With the frequent focus on specific regions (“more restricted geographical areas,” Clerici, 1999), we find that Tuscany plays a conspicuous part. Its place at the top of the list was often due to the interests of “scientific” travelers, as is demonstrated by the monumental work of Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, who brought prestige to his region through his indefatigable scientific activity: Relazioni d'alcuni viaggi fatti in diverse parti della Toscana per osservare le produzioni naturali, e gli antichi monumenti di essa (“Accounts of Some Journeys Made in Different Parts of Tuscany to Observe Its Natural Productions and Ancient Monuments,” first edition of 1751-54 in six volumes, second edition of 1768-69 in twelve volumes). This was a cornerstone of the description of the territory from the historical and scientific point of view, with topics ranging from “The Cultivation of Chestnuts in the Pisan Mountains” to the “History of the Castle and Silver Mines of Montieri”. But this kind of sweeping panorama of the region was in the minority. More common were works devoted to subregions, like Giuseppe Maria Brocchi’s description of Mugello, Giuseppe Rossi’s “Most Interesting Views and Monuments of the City of Pisa” or the “Merits” of the same city, “Summarized by Alessandro da Morrona, Pisan Patrician, for the Benefit of Cultured Citizens and Foreigners”; descriptions of particular features, such as Monte Amiata in Giorgio Santi’s Viaggio al Montamiata or the monastery of Vallombrosa in Nardi’s Viaggio pittorico della Vallombrosa; or accounts of short journeys like Giovanni Berti’s Relazione di un viaggio da Firenze a Loreto (1622).
While the low level of rhetorical and formal predictability typical of travel writing in general makes it hard to draw a clear line between literary texts and guidebooks, the distinction grows even more blurred in the case of the Italians, who were “naturally” assigned the role of guides in the territory with which they were familiar. So there were plenty of guidebooks to more than one city (Guida di Firenze e d’altre città principali della Toscana, or “Guide to Florence and Other Principal Cities of Tuscany,” by Gaspero Ricci), to single cities (Il forestiero erudito o sieno le compendiose notizie spettanti alla città di Pisa, “The Erudite Stranger or Compendious Information on the City of Pisa,” by Giovacchino Cambiagi) or to all kinds of marvels (Descrizione dell’imperiale giardino di Boboli fatta da Gaetano Cambiagi, “Description of the Imperial Garden of Boboli made by Gaetano Cambiagi”; Odeporico, o sia itinerario per le colline pisane “Story of a Journey, or Itinerary through the Pisan Hills”). These showed an ever increasing degree of specialization, all the way to monographs of historical or other inspiration. It did not always go without saying that the authors of these publications were travelers themselves, and sometimes the word “journey” was used in a purely metaphorical sense (a journey through the archives in search of a city’s historical sources, for example). And so, rather than examples of actual “stories of a journey,” these texts are a demonstration of how the vogue for travel stimulated the production of literature in its support, often very adequate from the viewpoint of the information it provided but not springing from a desire to understand an unfamiliar reality (of places and people) and above all not governed by the same “rules” as the genre of travel writing, however unorthodox the manner in which these were followed.
In one of these works, the Memorie istoriche per servire di guida al forestiero in Arezzo, (“Historical Notes to Serve as a Guide for the Stranger in Arezzo”), a common motive for this “para-literature” of travel is made explicit: «passing through the classical lands of Italy it is a disappointment to cultured travelers if they find no means of informing themselves about the place, and discovering what had stirred the greatest interest in them when reading the Histories. The Notes were compiled to meet this need in relation to the city of Arezzo and its environs».