Grand Tour

The most disagreeable part of the preparations for the journey was the red tape. Many documents were required, in the first place a passport. This was necessary in the case of inspections by the police or disputes with innkeepers and drivers, who could refuse to hire out their services in the absence of identification papers.

Given the subdivision of Italy, the operations of entry and exit and the process of going through customs were extremely complicated, and above all very frequent. To give an example, the first step for a British traveler heading for Italy was a visit to the Secretary of State's Office where, if he were well supplied with money, it was possible to obtain the signatures of the ambassadors of France, Austria and the Sardinian States. But if the traveler were going to Rome this was not enough, as he then had to obtain in Italy, at Turin, Milan or Florence, the signature of the apostolic nuncio. If he intended to go on from Rome to Naples he needed the countersignature of the British consul, the ambassador and the police. To return home, finally, he had to repeat the whole bureaucratic process, «which grew tangled when, having reached the first post house in France, the original passport was sent to Paris while the traveler was issued with a temporary one» (Astengo, 1992).

When arriving by sea it was obligatory to present at the port of entry not only a passport but also a certificate of health attesting to the absence of epidemics in the place from which the traveler had come, and thereby avoid being placed in quarantine. The certificate was sometimes even demanded from those who came through the passes, if there had been reports of epidemics in the countries on the other side of the Alps. The validity of the certificate was a very serious matter, brooking no compromise.

The total amount of money that visitors were permitted to bring with them was specified in the travel documents, but the sums authorized were certainly not sufficient to meet expenses. Moreover, given the number of different Italian states, it was no simple matter to deal with the many different currencies in use: soldi, sequins, ducats, paoli, testons, scudi, grossi, pistoles and lire of every kind (Milanese, Austrian, Italian). To make it easier to distinguish them guidebooks often included foldout tables giving the different rates of exchange. And then there was the problem of security, with the handbooks suggesting that coins should be concealed in a hollow stick or the sole of a shoe, or used instead of buttons (Vera guida per chi viaggia, 1771).

To cope with such problems, travelers initially relied on the system of depositing sums of money in an Italian bank in the capital of their home country (London or Paris, for example), receiving in return a notice of payment for corresponding banks in Italian cities (the notice was drawn up in triplicate: one copy for the traveler, two for the Italian banks on which he intended to draw). Then, with the development of the modern banking system, the system of letters of credit came into use from the end of the 17th century onward. By this method the traveler was able to ask his own bank, whatever it might be, for letters of credit to be shown to banks on the Continent that had made specific agreements with that institute. As a guarantee, the traveler might be required to show a covering letter with his personal data and a description of his physical appearance.

Other very valuable papers were the letters of recommendation that ensured the traveler a good reception, worthy of his rank. Such letters might be sent to bankers and maisons de commerce, when they would perform the function of guaranteeing the traveler a supply of funds, or to ambassadors or persons of high rank in the city, key figures in the successful outcome of a stay. Not only could their benevolence often permit the traveler to save on the expense of hotels by allowing him to take advantage of private hospitality, but above all it could give him access to the social life of the city, to those salons where the spirit of the place would be revealed to him better than in any book.