Grand Tour

One of the reasons for the high reputation of Maximilien Misson's 17th-century guidebook (1688) lies in the appendix entitled “Note for Travelers”. Placing it at the end of his Voyage, the Frenchman used it to tackle the most disparate subjects and at the same time, with his system of symbols to classify the different characteristics of the places mentioned, proposed himself as a candidate for the founder of the modern idea of the guidebook. Among other things, Misson recommended not skimping on money, and still less on the time devoted to the journey. But from the early days to the golden age and on to the transformation of the Grand Tour into mass tourism, the material conditions changed considerably. The lofty detachment of august and enlightened aristocrats was a very different thing from a «certain ill-concealed stinginess of the post-Napoleonic traveler» (Brilli, 1987). Just as Misson's recommendation «not to rack one's brains too much over cutting costs» appears to have been a highly unusual one in that period, even time had begun to be seen in terms of money and travelers were learning not to squander it in unprofitable idleness.

From the second half of the 18th century onward, in particular, there was a slow erosion of the amount of time that had previously been so generously devoted to travel, which is also a sign that the financial investment people were willing to make in it was beginning to dwindle (De Seta, 1982). Bacon's suggestion that the ideal period of stay was three years (the time needed to learn the language!) was dismissed as impracticable: while Montaigne, in 1581, devoted over ten months to Italy, Gibbon, in 1764, stayed in the country for nine months, Charles Burney, in 1770, dedicated a total of six months to his tour, divided between the peninsula and France; and the mere two months that Dupré allowed himself for his Italian journey in 1822 indicate a clear reversal of a trend.