Grand Tour

After Florence Livorno was undoubtedly the city held in highest regard, as long as the visitor had the intelligence not to look for any work of art or relic of past in the place, but appreciated instead the flourishing state of the practical arts and the liveliness of its commercial center, one of the most active in the Mediterranean. For, as Gibbon put it (1764), «there are more of the products of labor there than those of genius». Indeed, it was precisely from an outlying city like Livorno, extraneous to the atmosphere of the medieval Tuscan cities and their historical and artistic past, that «a reconquest of Tuscany on the part of the European imagination commenced» (Mascilli Migliorini, 1995) in the 1770s.

In the pleasant and modern city of Livorno, known to the English as Leghorn, the places that deserved a visit were the port; the district traversed by canals which regularly prompted comparison with Venice; the large square at the center of the city; the big warehouse known as the Bottini dell’Olio, used to store the high-quality olive oil which contributed so much to the city’s flourishing trade; and the city’s two great “monuments,” the Lazzaretto and the Synagogue (which Valèry called «grand, magnificent» while dismissing Livorno as a «boring and insignificant», place, showing that appreciation of the “outlying” city had begun to fade in the 19th century). A recurrent element is the comparison with Pisa and its declining population, for which Livorno was considered responsible.

In addition to the city’s highly regarded layout, that «air of supreme uniformity, thanks to the straight roads» which had impressed John Ray (1663-66), what struck visitors was its cosmopolitanism, the diverse communities that had made their home there and their peaceful coexistence (a true land of Canaan, Gibbon would define it) based on a common involvement in trade. Thus Livorno was not just, as de Brosses described it (1740), «a brand new pocket-sized city, pretty enough to put on a snuffbox», but also a modern one, filled with different nationalities. The Jewish community, whose members were not obliged to wear any mark of identity, was especially numerous and had its own synagogue, but there was also an English one, whose cemetery was often mentioned and admired.

Livorno was considered the city that best reflected the farsightedness of the government, the grand duchy’s urbanistic as well as political masterwork. In fact it was founded in a swampy area that had previously only been inhabited by small groups of fishermen, until the government realized its potential and transformed it into a new city with a sizeable harbor, governed by enlightened laws that permitted great commercial and social development and made it a beacon for the entire Mediterranean.

Another frequently mentioned aspect linked to the modernity of the place was its role as the «best point from which to observe the politics of the Florentine state» (Brilli, 1986). Politicians and diplomats, who felt at home in that active and peaceful climate, were numerous among the visitors. The French and Flemish, in fact, had been there since the 16th century. In the 19th century, finally, Livorno became the preferred point of arrival for American travelers, whose tales of misadventures with the arduous rules of quarantine are legion.