the grand tour journey

• What Was The Grand Tour...

What Was the Grand Tour and Where Did People Go?

Freelance Travel and Music Writer

Nowadays, it’s so easy to pack a bag and hop on a flight or interrail across Europe’s railway at your own leisure. But what if it was known as a right of passage, made no easier by the fact that there was no such modern luxury? Welcome to the Grand Tour – and we’re not talking about Jeremy Clarkson’s TV series …

What was the grand tour all about.

The Grand Tour was a trip of Europe, typically undertaken by young men, which begun in the 17th century and went through to the mid-19th. Women over the age of 21 would occasionally partake, providing they were accompanied by a chaperone from their family. The Grand Tour was seen as an educational trip across Europe, usually starting in Dover, and would see young, wealthy travellers search for arts and culture. Though travelling was not as easy back then, mostly thanks to no rail routes like today, those on The Grand Tour would often have a healthy supply of funds in order to enjoy themselves freely.

What did travellers get up to?

Of course, in the 17th century, there was no such thing as the internet, making discovering things while sat on the other side of the world near impossible. Cultural integration was not yet fully-fledged and nothing like we experience today, so the only way to understand different ways of life was to experience them yourself. Hence why so many people set off for the Grand Tour – the ultimate trip across Europe!

Typical routes taken on the Grand Tour

Travellers (occompanied by a tutor) would often start around the South East region and head in to France, where a coach would often be rented should the party be wealthy enough. Occasionally, the coaches would need to be disassembled in order to cross difficult terrain such as the Alps.

Once passing through Calais and Paris, a typical journey would include a stop-off in Switzerland before crossing the Alps in to Northern Italy. Here’s where the wealth really comes in to play – as luggage and methods of transport would need to be dismantled and carried manually – as really rich travellers would often employ servants to carry everything for them.

Of course, Italy is a highly cultural country and famous for its art and historic buildings, so travellers would spend longer here. Turin, Florence, Rome, Pompeii and Venice would be amongst the cities visited, generally enticing those in to extended stays.

On the return leg, travellers would visit Germany and occasionally Austria, including study time at universities such as Munich, before heading to Holland and Flanders, ahead of crossing the Channel back to Dover.

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What was the Grand Tour?

Find out about the travel phenomenon that became popular amongst the young nobility of England

Art, antiquity and architecture: the Grand Tour provided an opportunity to discover the cultural wonders of Europe and beyond.  

Popular throughout the 18th century, this extended journey was seen as a rite of passage for mainly young, aristocratic English men. 

As well as marvelling at artistic masterpieces, Grand Tourists brought back souvenirs to commemorate and display their journeys at home. 

One exceptional example forms the subject of a new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum. Canaletto’s Venice Revisited brings together 24 of Canaletto’s Venetian views, commissioned in 1731 by Lord John Russell following his visit to Venice. 

Find out more about this travel phenomenon – and uncover its rich cultural legacy. 

Canaletto's Venice Revisited

The origins of the Grand Tour

The development of the Grand Tour dates back to the 16th century. 

One of the earliest Grand Tourists was the architect Inigo Jones , who embarked on a tour of Italy in 1613-14 with his patron Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel. 

Jones visited cities such as Parma, Venice and Rome. However, it was Naples that proved the high point of his travels.  

Jones was particularly fascinated by the San Paolo Maggiore, describing the church as “one of the best things that I have ever seen.” 

Jones’s time in Italy shaped his architectural style. In 1616, Jones was commissioned to design the Queen’s House in Greenwich for Queen Anne of Denmark , the wife of King James I. Completed in around 1636, the house was the first classical building in England. 

The expression ‘Grand Tour’ itself comes from 17th century travel writer and Roman Catholic priest Richard Lassels, who used it in his guidebook The Voyage of Italy, published in 1670. 

By the 18th century, the Grand Tour had reached its zenith. Despite Anglo-French wars in 1689-97 and 1702-13, this was a time of relative stability in Europe, which made travelling across the continent easier. 

The Grand Tour route

For young English aristocrats, embarking on the Grand Tour was seen as an important rite of passage. 

Accompanied by a tutor, a Grand Tourist’s route typically involved taking a ship across the English Channel before travelling in a carriage through France, stopping at Paris and other major cities. 

Italy was also a popular destination thanks to the art and architecture of places such as Venice, Florence, Rome, Milan and Naples. More adventurous travellers ventured to Sicily or even sailed across to Greece. The average Grand Tour lasted for at least a year. 

As Katherine Gazzard, Curator of Art at Royal Museums Greenwich explains, this extended journey marked the culmination of a Grand Tourist’s education.  

“The Grand Tourists would have received an education that was grounded in the Classics,” she says. “During their travels to the continent, they would have seen classical ruins and read Latin and Greek texts. The Grand Tour was also an opportunity to take in more recent culture, such as Renaissance paintings, and see contemporary artists at work.” 

As well as educational opportunities, the Grand Tour was linked with independence. Places such as Venice were popular with pleasure seekers, boasting gambling houses and occasions for drinking and partying.  

“On the Grand Tour, there’s a sense that travellers are gaining some of their independence and having a lesson in the ways of the world,” Gazzard explains. “For visitors to Venice, there were opportunities to behave beyond the social norms, with the masquerade and the carnival.” 

Art and the Grand Tour 

Bound up with the idea of independence was the need to collect souvenirs, which the Grand Tourists could display in their homes.  

“The ownership of property was tied to status, so creating a material legacy was really important for the Grand Tourists in order to solidify their social standing amongst their peers,” says Gazzard. “They were looking to spend money and buy mementos to prove they went on the trip.” 

The works of artists such as those of the 18th century view painter Giovanni Antonio Canal (known as Canaletto ) were especially popular with Grand Tourists. Prized for their detail, Canaletto’s artworks captured the landmarks and scenes of everyday Venetian life, from festive scenes to bustling traffic on the Grand Canal . 

In 1731, Lord John Russell, the future 4th Duke of Bedford, commissioned Canaletto to create 24 Venetian views following his visit to the city. 

Lord John Russell is known to have paid at least £188 for the set – over five times the annual earnings of a skilled tradesperson at the time.  

“Canaletto’s work was portable and collectible,” says Gazzard. “He adopted a smaller size for his canvases so they could be rolled up and shipped easily.” 

These detailed works, now part of the world famous collection at Woburn Abbey, form the centrepiece of Canaletto’s Venice Revisited at the National Maritime Museum . 

Who was Canaletto?

The legacy of the Grand Tour 

The start of the French Revolution in 1789 marked the end of the Grand Tour. However, its legacy is still keenly felt. 

The desire to explore and learn about different places and cultures through travel continues to endure. The legacy of the Grand Tour can also be seen in the artworks and objects that adorn the walls of stately homes and museums, and the many cultural influences that travellers brought back to Britain. 

Canaletto's Venice Revisited

Main image:  The Piazza San Marco looking towards the Basilica San Marco and the Campanile by Canaletto . From the Woburn Abbey Collection . Canaletto painting in body copy:  Regatta on Grand Canal  by Canaletto  From the Woburn Abbey Collection

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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

What Was the Grand Tour of Europe?

Lucy Davidson

26 jan 2022, @lucejuiceluce.

In the 18th century, a ‘Grand Tour’ became a rite of passage for wealthy young men. Essentially an elaborate form of finishing school, the tradition saw aristocrats travel across Europe to take in Greek and Roman history, language and literature, art, architecture and antiquity, while a paid ‘cicerone’ acted as both a chaperone and teacher.

Grand Tours were particularly popular amongst the British from 1764-1796, owing to the swathes of travellers and painters who flocked to Europe, the large number of export licenses granted to the British from Rome and a general period of peace and prosperity in Europe.

However, this wasn’t forever: Grand Tours waned in popularity from the 1870s with the advent of accessible rail and steamship travel and the popularity of Thomas Cook’s affordable ‘Cook’s Tour’, which made mass tourism possible and traditional Grand Tours less fashionable.

Here’s the history of the Grand Tour of Europe.

Who went on the Grand Tour?

In his 1670 guidebook The Voyage of Italy , Catholic priest and travel writer Richard Lassells coined the term ‘Grand Tour’ to describe young lords travelling abroad to learn about art, culture and history. The primary demographic of Grand Tour travellers changed little over the years, though primarily upper-class men of sufficient means and rank embarked upon the journey when they had ‘come of age’ at around 21.

‘Goethe in the Roman Campagna’ by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein. Rome 1787.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Grand Tours also became fashionable for women who might be accompanied by a spinster aunt as a chaperone. Novels such as E. M. Forster’s A Room With a View reflected the role of the Grand Tour as an important part of a woman’s education and entrance into elite society.

Increasing wealth, stability and political importance led to a more broad church of characters undertaking the journey. Prolonged trips were also taken by artists, designers, collectors, art trade agents and large numbers of the educated public.

What was the route?

The Grand Tour could last anything from several months to many years, depending on an individual’s interests and finances, and tended to shift across generations. The average British tourist would start in Dover before crossing the English Channel to Ostend in Belgium or Le Havre and Calais in France. From there the traveller (and if wealthy enough, group of servants) would hire a French-speaking guide before renting or acquiring a coach that could be both sold on or disassembled. Alternatively, they would take the riverboat as far as the Alps or up the Seine to Paris .

Map of grand tour taken by William Thomas Beckford in 1780.

From Paris, travellers would normally cross the Alps – the particularly wealthy would be carried in a chair – with the aim of reaching festivals such as the Carnival in Venice or Holy Week in Rome. From there, Lucca, Florence, Siena and Rome or Naples were popular, as were Venice, Verona, Mantua, Bologna, Modena, Parma, Milan, Turin and Mont Cenis.

What did people do on the Grand Tour?

A Grand Tour was both an educational trip and an indulgent holiday. The primary attraction of the tour lay in its exposure of the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, such as the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, as well as the chance to enter fashionable and aristocratic European society.

Johann Zoffany: The Gore Family with George, third Earl Cowper, c. 1775.

In addition, many accounts wrote of the sexual freedom that came with being on the continent and away from society at home. Travel abroad also provided the only opportunity to view certain works of art and potentially the only chance to hear certain music.

The antiques market also thrived as lots of Britons, in particular, took priceless antiquities from abroad back with them, or commissioned copies to be made. One of the most famous of these collectors was the 2nd Earl of Petworth, who gathered or commissioned some 200 paintings and 70 statues and busts – mainly copies of Greek originals or Greco-Roman pieces – between 1750 and 1760.

It was also fashionable to have your portrait painted towards the end of the trip. Pompeo Batoni painted over 175 portraits of travellers in Rome during the 18th century.

Others would also undertake formal study in universities, or write detailed diaries or accounts of their experiences. One of the most famous of these accounts is that of US author and humourist Mark Twain, whose satirical account of his Grand Tour in Innocents Abroad became both his best selling work in his own lifetime and one of the best-selling travel books of the age.

Why did the popularity of the Grand Tour decline?

A Thomas Cook flyer from 1922 advertising cruises down the Nile. This mode of tourism has been immortalised in works such as Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie.

The popularity of the Grand Tour declined for a number of reasons. The Napoleonic Wars from 1803-1815 marked the end of the heyday of the Grand Tour, since the conflict made travel difficult at best and dangerous at worst.

The Grand Tour finally came to an end with the advent of accessible rail and steamship travel as a result of Thomas Cook’s ‘Cook’s Tour’, a byword of early mass tourism, which started in the 1870s. Cook first made mass tourism popular in Italy, with his train tickets allowing travel over a number of days and destinations. He also introduced travel-specific currencies and coupons which could be exchanged at hotels, banks and ticket agencies which made travelling easier and also stabilised the new Italian currency, the lira.

As a result of the sudden potential for mass tourism, the Grand Tour’s heyday as a rare experience reserved for the wealthy came to a close.

Can you go on a Grand Tour today?

Echoes of the Grand Tour exist today in a variety of forms. For a budget, multi-destination travel experience, interrailing is your best bet; much like Thomas Cook’s early train tickets, travel is permitted along many routes and tickets are valid for a certain number of days or stops.

For a more upmarket experience, cruising is a popular choice, transporting tourists to a number of different destinations where you can disembark to enjoy the local culture and cuisine.

Though the days of wealthy nobles enjoying exclusive travel around continental Europe and dancing with European royalty might be over, the cultural and artistic imprint of a bygone Grand Tour era is very much alive.

To plan your own Grand Tour of Europe, take a look at History Hit’s guides to the most unmissable heritage sites in Paris , Austria and, of course, Italy .

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• M.A., Geography, California State University - Northridge
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The French Revolution marked the end of a spectacular period of travel and enlightenment for European youth, particularly from England. Young English elites of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often spent two to four years touring around Europe in an effort to broaden their horizons and learn about language , architecture , geography, and culture in an experience known as the Grand Tour.

The Grand Tour, which didn't come to an end until the close of the eighteenth century, began in the sixteenth century and gained popularity during the seventeenth century. Read to find out what started this event and what the typical Tour entailed.

Origins of the Grand Tour

Privileged young graduates of sixteenth-century Europe pioneered a trend wherein they traveled across the continent in search of art and cultural experiences upon their graduation. This practice, which grew to be wildly popular, became known as the Grand Tour, a term introduced by Richard Lassels in his 1670 book Voyage to Italy . Specialty guidebooks, tour guides, and other aspects of the tourist industry were developed during this time to meet the needs of wealthy 20-something male and female travelers and their tutors as they explored the European continent.

These young, classically-educated Tourists were affluent enough to fund multiple years abroad for themselves and they took full advantage of this. They carried letters of reference and introduction with them as they departed from southern England in order to communicate with and learn from people they met in other countries. Some Tourists sought to continue their education and broaden their horizons while abroad, some were just after fun and leisurely travels, but most desired a combination of both.

Navigating Europe

A typical journey through Europe was long and winding with many stops along the way. London was commonly used as a starting point and the Tour was usually kicked off with a difficult trip across the English Channel.

Crossing the English Channel

The most common route across the English Channel, La Manche, was made from Dover to Calais, France—this is now the path of the Channel Tunnel. A trip from Dover across the Channel to Calais and finally into Paris customarily took three days. After all, crossing the wide channel was and is not easy. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tourists risked seasickness, illness, and even shipwreck on this first leg of travel.

Compulsory Stops

Grand Tourists were primarily interested in visiting cities that were considered major centers of culture at the time, so Paris, Rome, and Venice were not to be missed. Florence and Naples were also popular destinations but were regarded as more optional than the aforementioned cities.

The average Grand Tourist traveled from city to city, usually spending weeks in smaller cities and up to several months in the three major ones. Paris, France was the most popular stop of the Grand Tour for its cultural, architectural, and political influence. It was also popular because most young British elite already spoke French, a prominent language in classical literature and other studies, and travel through and to this city was relatively easy. For many English citizens, Paris was the most impressive place visited.

Getting to Italy

From Paris, many Tourists proceeded across the Alps or took a boat on the Mediterranean Sea to get to Italy, another essential stopping point. For those who made their way across the Alps, Turin was the first Italian city they'd come to and some remained here while others simply passed through on their way to Rome or Venice.

Rome was initially the southernmost point of travel. However, when excavations of Herculaneum (1738) and Pompeii (1748) began, these two sites were added as major destinations on the Grand Tour.

Features of the Grand Tour

The vast majority of Tourists took part in similar activities during their exploration with art at the center of it all. Once a Tourist arrived at a destination, they would seek housing and settle in for anywhere from weeks to months, even years. Though certainly not an overly trying experience for most, the Grand Tour presented a unique set of challenges for travelers to overcome.

While the original purpose of the Grand Tour was educational, a great deal of time was spent on much more frivolous pursuits. Among these were drinking, gambling, and intimate encounters—some Tourists regarded their travels as an opportunity to indulge in promiscuity with little consequence. Journals and sketches that were supposed to be completed during the Tour were left blank more often than not.

Visiting French and Italian royalty as well as British diplomats was a common recreation during the Tour. The young men and women that participated wanted to return home with stories to tell and meeting famous or otherwise influential people made for great stories.

The study and collection of art became almost a nonoptional engagement for Grand Tourists. Many returned home with bounties of paintings, antiques, and handmade items from various countries. Those that could afford to purchase lavish souvenirs did so in the extreme.

Arriving in Paris, one of the first destinations for most, a Tourist would usually rent an apartment for several weeks or months. Day trips from Paris to the French countryside or to Versailles (the home of the French monarchy) were common for less wealthy travelers that couldn't pay for longer outings.

The homes of envoys were often utilized as hotels and food pantries. This annoyed envoys but there wasn't much they could do about such inconveniences caused by their citizens. Nice apartments tended to be accessible only in major cities, with harsh and dirty inns the only options in smaller ones.

Trials and Challenges

A Tourist would not carry much money on their person during their expeditions due to the risk of highway robberies. Instead, letters of credit from reputable London banks were presented at major cities of the Grand Tour in order to make purchases. In this way, tourists spent a great deal of money abroad.

Because these expenditures were made outside of England and therefore did not bolster England's economy, some English politicians were very much against the institution of the Grand Tour and did not approve of this rite of passage. This played minimally into the average person's decision to travel.

Returning to England

Upon returning to England, tourists were meant to be ready to assume the responsibilities of an aristocrat. The Grand Tour was ultimately worthwhile as it has been credited with spurring dramatic developments in British architecture and culture, but many viewed it as a waste of time during this period because many Tourists did not come home more mature than when they had left.

The French Revolution in 1789 halted the Grand Tour—in the early nineteenth century, railroads forever changed the face of tourism and foreign travel.

• Burk, Kathleen. "The Grand Tour of Europe". Gresham College, 6 Apr. 2005.
• Knowles, Rachel. “The Grand Tour.”   Regency History , 30 Apr. 2013.
• Sorabella, Jean. “The Grand Tour.”   Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History , The Met Museum, Oct. 2003.
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The Grand Tour: Everything You Need to Know

Gokce Dyson 28 November 2022 min Read

Carl Spitzweg, Englishmen in Campania , ca. 1835, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany.

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Nowadays, it is very common to take a gap year before or after university studies to travel and expand your horizons. Dedicating a year or two before committing to a full-time job means you can experience different cultures, learn languages, and enjoy having a bit of fun before settling down. Back in the day, with similar objectives, many noblemen embarked on a journey across Europe before entering adulthood. It was called the Grand Tour. 

The Grand Tour evolved between the 17th and 18th centuries as a custom of a traditional trip. The purpose of the Grand Tour was to provide male members of upper-class families with a formative experience. The term was first used by the Catholic priest and travel writer Richard Lassels in his guidebook The Voyage of Italy . The book came out in 1670 and described young lords traveling to Italy to see art, architecture, and antiquity. Lassels completed the Grand Tour five times during his lifetime.

In England, for example, the general view held by the aristocrats was that foreign travel completed the education of an English gentleman. However, some people were also quite skeptical about the tour. They feared the amount of money spent to make the Grand Tour possible could ruin the young nobility.

Although the Grand Tour was largely associated with English travelers, they were far from being the only ones on the road. On the contrary, wealthy families in France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark also saw traveling as an ideal way to finish the education of their societies’ future leaders.

Itinerary of the Grand Tour

The traditional route of the Grand Tour usually began in Dover, England. Grand tourists would cross the English Channel to Le Havre in France. Upon arrival in Paris , the young men tended to hire a French-speaking guide as French was the dominant language of the elite during the 17th and 18th centuries. In Paris, they spent some time taking lessons in fencing, riding, and perhaps dancing. There, they became accustomed to the sophisticated manners of French society in courtly behavior and fashion. Paris was a crucial step in preparing for their positions to be fulfilled in government or diplomacy waiting back in England.

From there, tourists would buy transport, and if they were prosperous enough, they would hire a tutor to accompany them. The travelers would then get back on the road and cross the Alps, carried in a chair at Mont Cenis before moving on to Turin.

Italy was exceedingly the most traveled country on the Grand Tour. A Grand tourist’s list of must-see cities in Italy included Florence , Venice , and Naples . And then, there was Rome . Each Italian city offered immense importance in experiencing art and architecture, and Rome had it all.

Touring Italy

Once arriving in Italy, noblemen traveled to Florence followed by Venice, Rome, and Naples. Florence was popular for its Renaissance art, magnificent country villas, and beautiful gardens. Young aristocrats were able to gain entry to private collections where they could observe the legacy of the Medici family. Venice , on the other hand, was the party city. There was, however, a second reason to visit Venice. During their travels, grand tourists often commissioned art to take back home with them. Wealthy ones brought sketch artists along with them. Others purchased ready-made artworks instead. Giovanni Battista Piranesi created numerous prints and sketches depicting the ancient ruins in Rome. The works of the Venetian artist were popular among noblemen.

Rome was considered the ultimate stop during the Grand Tour. The city had a harmonious mixture of past and present. One could experience modern-day Baroque art and architecture and ancient ruins , dating back thousands of years at the same time. It was lauded as home to Michelangelo’s and Bernini’s most prized works. Gentlemen visited spots like the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and Porta del Popolo. William Beckford described his feelings in a letter when he was on his Grand Tour:

Shall I ever forget the sensations I experienced upon slowly descending the hills, and crossing the bridge over the Tiber; when I entered an avenue between terraces and ornamented gates of villas, which leads to the Porto del Popolo… William Beckford, letter from the Grand Tour, 1780.

The next stop on the route was Naples. When Italian authorities began excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii in the 1730s, grand tourists flocked there to delve into the mysteries of the ancient past. Naples became a popular retreat for the British who wanted to enjoy the coastal sun. Travelers such as J. W. Goethe praised the city’s glories:

Naples is a Paradise: everyone lives in a state of intoxicated self-forgetfulness, myself included. I seem to be a completely different person whom I hardly recognize. Yesterday I thought to myself: Either you were mad before, or you are mad now. J. W. Goethe, Google Arts& Culture .

Returning home, young gentlemen crossed the Alps to the German-speaking parts of Europe and visited Innsbruck, Vienna , Dresden, and Berlin . From there, they stopped in Holland and Flanders before returning to England.

With the introduction of steam railways in Europe around 1825, travel became safer, cheaper, and easier to undertake. The Grand Tour custom continued; however, it was not limited to the members of wealthy families. During the 19th century, many educated men had undertaken the Grand Tour. It also became more popular for women to travel across Europe with chaperones. A Room with A View, written by English novelist E. M. Forster, tells the story of a young woman who embarks on a journey to Italy in the 1900s.

Legacy of the Grand Tour

Grand tourists would return with crates full of books, oil paintings, medals, coins, and antique artifacts to be displayed in libraries, cabinets, drawing rooms, and galleries built for that purpose. The marble sarcophagus shown above was brought back from Italy to England by the third duke of Beaufort who found this item during his Grand Tour stop in Pompeii. Impressed by the European art academies on his Grand Tour, Joshua Reynolds founded the Royal Academy of Arts in London upon his return in 1768. The Grand Tour inspired many travelers to take a greater interest in ancient art. The British School in Rome was established to learn more about the Roman ruins and it still exists today.

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Gokce Dyson

Based in Canterbury, Gokce holds a bachelor's degree in History and Archaeological Studies and a master's degree in Museum and Gallery Studies. She firmly believes that art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. If Gokce is not tucked into a cosy corner with a medieval history book, she can be found spending her evenings doing jigsaw puzzles.

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

The grand tour.

Marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons

Piazza San Marco

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)

Autre Vue Particulière de Paris depuis Nôtre Dame, Jusques au Pont de la Tournelle

Jacques Rigaud

Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from 'Views' (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal)

The Piazza del Popolo (Veduta della Piazza del Popolo), from "Vedute di Roma"

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Vue de la Grande Façade du Vieux Louvre

View of St. Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum

Richard Wilson

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768)

Anton Raphael Mengs

Modern Rome

Giovanni Paolo Panini

Ancient Rome

Portrait of a Young Man

Pompeo Batoni

Gardens of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli

Charles Joseph Natoire

Veduta dell'Anfiteatro Flavio detto il Colosseo, from: 'Vedute di Roma' (Views of Rome)

View of the Villa Lante on the Janiculum in Rome

John Robert Cozens

The Girandola at the Castel Sant'Angelo

Designed and hand colored by Louis Jean Desprez

Dining room from Lansdowne House

After a design by Robert Adam

The Burial of Punchinello

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Portland vase

Josiah Wedgwood and Sons

Jean Sorabella Independent Scholar

October 2003

Beginning in the late sixteenth century, it became fashionable for young aristocrats to visit Paris, Venice, Florence, and above all Rome, as the culmination of their classical education. Thus was born the idea of the Grand Tour, a practice that introduced Englishmen, Germans, Scandinavians, and also Americans to the art and culture of France and Italy for the next 300 years. Travel was arduous and costly throughout the period, possible only for a privileged class—the same that produced gentleman scientists, authors, antiquaries, and patrons of the arts.

The Objectives of the Grand Tour The Grand Tourist was typically a young man with a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin literature as well as some leisure time, some means, and some interest in art. The German traveler Johann Joachim Winckelmann pioneered the field of art history with his comprehensive study of Greek and Roman sculpture ; he was portrayed by his friend Anton Raphael Mengs at the beginning of his long residence in Rome ( 48.141 ). Most Grand Tourists, however, stayed for briefer periods and set out with less scholarly intentions, accompanied by a teacher or guardian, and expected to return home with souvenirs of their travels as well as an understanding of art and architecture formed by exposure to great masterpieces.

London was a frequent starting point for Grand Tourists, and Paris a compulsory destination; many traveled to the Netherlands, some to Switzerland and Germany, and a very few adventurers to Spain, Greece, or Turkey. The essential place to visit, however, was Italy. The British traveler Charles Thompson spoke for many Grand Tourists when in 1744 he described himself as “being impatiently desirous of viewing a country so famous in history, which once gave laws to the world; which is at present the greatest school of music and painting, contains the noblest productions of statuary and architecture, and abounds with cabinets of rarities , and collections of all kinds of antiquities.” Within Italy, the great focus was Rome, whose ancient ruins and more recent achievements were shown to every Grand Tourist. Panini’s Ancient Rome ( 52.63.1 ) and Modern Rome ( 52.63.2 ) represent the sights most prized, including celebrated Greco-Roman statues and views of famous ruins, fountains, and churches. Since there were few museums anywhere in Europe before the close of the eighteenth century, Grand Tourists often saw paintings and sculptures by gaining admission to private collections, and many were eager to acquire examples of Greco-Roman and Italian art for their own collections. In England, where architecture was increasingly seen as an aristocratic pursuit, noblemen often applied what they learned from the villas of Palladio in the Veneto and the evocative ruins of Rome to their own country houses and gardens .

The Grand Tour and the Arts Many artists benefited from the patronage of Grand Tourists eager to procure mementos of their travels. Pompeo Batoni painted portraits of aristocrats in Rome surrounded by classical staffage ( 03.37.1 ), and many travelers bought Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s prints of Roman views, including ancient structures like the Colosseum ( 59.570.426 ) and more recent monuments like the Piazza del Popolo ( 37.45.3[49] ), the dazzling Baroque entryway to Rome. Some Grand Tourists invited artists from home to accompany them throughout their travels, making views specific to their own itineraries; the British artist Richard Wilson, for example, made drawings of Italian places while traveling with the earl of Dartmouth in the mid-eighteenth century ( 1972.118.294 ).

Classical taste and an interest in exotic customs shaped travelers’ itineraries as well as their reactions. Gothic buildings , not much esteemed before the late eighteenth century, were seldom cause for long excursions, while monuments of Greco-Roman antiquity, the Italian Renaissance, and the classical Baroque tradition received praise and admiration. Jacques Rigaud’s views of Paris were well suited to the interests of Grand Tourists, displaying, for example, the architectural grandeur of the Louvre, still a royal palace, and the bustle of life along the Seine ( 53.600.1191 ;  53.600.1175 ). Canaletto’s views of Venice ( 1973.634 ;  1988.162 ) were much prized, and other works appealed to Northern travelers’ interest in exceptional fêtes and customs: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo ‘s Burial of Punchinello ( 1975.1.473 ), for instance, is peopled with characters from the Venetian carnival, and a print by Francesco Piranesi and Louis Jean Desprez depicts the Girandola, a spectacular fireworks display held at the Castel Sant’Angelo ( 69.510 ).

The Grand Tour and Neoclassical Taste The Grand Tour gave concrete form to northern Europeans’ ideas about the Greco-Roman world and helped foster Neoclassical ideals . The most ambitious tourists visited excavations at such sites as Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Tivoli, and purchased antiquities to decorate their homes. The third duke of Beaufort brought from Rome the third-century work named the Badminton Sarcophagus ( 55.11.5 ) after the house where he proudly installed it in Gloucestershire. The dining rooms of Robert Adam’s interiors typically incorporated classical statuary; the nine lifesized figures set in niches in the Lansdowne dining room ( 32.12 ) were among the many antiquities acquired by the second earl of Shelburne, whose collecting activities accelerated after 1771, when he visited Italy and met Gavin Hamilton, a noted antiquary and one of the first dealers to take an interest in Attic ceramics, then known as “Etruscan vases.” Early entrepreneurs recognized opportunities created by the culture of the Grand Tour: when the second duchess of Portland obtained a Roman cameo glass vase in a much-publicized sale, Josiah Wedgwood profited from the manufacture of jasper reproductions ( 94.4.172 ).

Sorabella, Jean. “The Grand Tour.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grtr/hd_grtr.htm (October 2003)

Further Reading

Black, Jeremy. The British and the Grand Tour . London: Croom Helm, 1985.

Black, Jeremy. Italy and the Grand Tour . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

Black, Jeremy. France and the Grand Tour . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Haskell, Francis, and Nicholas Penny. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900 . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.

Wilton, Andrew, and Ilaria Bignamini, eds. The Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century . Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Gallery Publishing, 1996.

Additional Essays by Jean Sorabella

• Sorabella, Jean. “ Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe .” (April 2011)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Portraiture in Renaissance and Baroque Europe .” (August 2007)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Venetian Color and Florentine Design .” (October 2002)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Art of the Roman Provinces, 1–500 A.D. .” (May 2010)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in Baroque and Later Art .” (January 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance .” (January 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in Western Art and Its Beginnings in Antiquity .” (January 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Monasticism in Western Medieval Europe .” (originally published October 2001, last revised March 2013)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Interior Design in England, 1600–1800 .” (October 2003)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Vikings (780–1100) .” (October 2002)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Painting the Life of Christ in Medieval and Renaissance Italy .” (June 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Birth and Infancy of Christ in Italian Painting .” (June 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Crucifixion and Passion of Christ in Italian Painting .” (June 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Carolingian Art .” (December 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Ottonian Art .” (September 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Ballet .” (October 2004)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Baroque Rome .” (October 2003)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Opera .” (October 2004)

Related Essays

• American Neoclassical Sculptors Abroad
• Baroque Rome
• The Idea and Invention of the Villa
• Neoclassicism
• The Rediscovery of Classical Antiquity
• Antonio Canova (1757–1822)
• Architecture in Renaissance Italy
• Athenian Vase Painting: Black- and Red-Figure Techniques
• The Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase
• Collecting for the Kunstkammer
• Commedia dell’arte
• The Eighteenth-Century Pastel Portrait
• Exoticism in the Decorative Arts
• Gardens in the French Renaissance
• Gardens of Western Europe, 1600–1800
• George Inness (1825–1894)
• Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778)
• Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770)
• Images of Antiquity in Limoges Enamels in the French Renaissance
• James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
• Joachim Tielke (1641–1719)
• John Frederick Kensett (1816–1872)
• Photographers in Egypt
• The Printed Image in the West: Etching
• Roman Copies of Greek Statues
• Theater and Amphitheater in the Roman World
• Anatolia and the Caucasus, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Balkan Peninsula, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Central Europe (including Germany), 1600–1800 A.D.
• Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Florence and Central Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.
• France, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Great Britain and Ireland, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Iberian Peninsula, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Low Countries, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Rome and Southern Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.
• The United States, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Venice and Northern Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.
• 16th Century A.D.
• 17th Century A.D.
• 18th Century A.D.
• 19th Century A.D.
• Ancient Roman Art
• Baroque Art
• Central Europe
• Central Italy
• Classical Ruins
• Great Britain and Ireland
• Greek and Roman Mythology
• The Netherlands
• Palladianism
• Period Room
• Southern Italy
• Switzerland

Artist or Maker

• Adam, Robert
• Batoni, Pompeo
• Cozens, John Robert
• Desprez, Louis Jean
• Mengs, Anton Raphael
• Natoire, Charles Joseph
• Panini, Giovanni Paolo
• Permoser, Balthasar
• Piranesi, Francesco
• Piranesi, Giovanni Battista
• Rigaud, Jacques
• Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista
• Tiepolo, Giovanni Domenico
• Wedgwood, Josiah
• Wilson, Richard

Online Features

• Connections: “Flux” by Annie Labatt
• Connections: “Genoa” by Xavier Salomon

The Grand Tour

Englishmen abroad.

At its height, from around 1660–1820, the Grand Tour was considered to be the best way to complete a gentleman’s education. After leaving school or university, young noblemen from northern Europe left for France to start the tour.

After acquiring a coach in Calais, they would ride on to Paris – their first major stop. From there they would head south to Italy or Spain, carting all their possessions and servants with them.

Their most popular destinations were the great towns and cities of the Renaissance, along with the remains of ancient Roman and Greek civilisation.

Their souvenirs were rather more durable than holiday snaps, replica Eiffel Towers or t-shirts – they filled crates with paintings, sculptures and fine clothes.

Travel was somewhat more of an ordeal than today (even accounting for the worst airport queues and hold-ups). However rich these young men were, there was no hot shower after a day on the road, no credit card to get them out of a tight spot, and no mobile phone to ring people for help.

Furthermore transport was slow. Instead of taking a 12-month trip, some went away for many years. Most went for at least two, spending months in essential spots along the way.

The plan was to set young noblemen up to manage their estates, furnish their houses and prepare for conversation in polite society. But did the Grand Tour turn them into gentlemen? Sometimes a taste for vice got in the way.

Next:  A moral education  

The Grand Tour in the 19th Century: A Journey Through Elegance and Enlightenment

Welcome to my blog, 19th Century ! In this article, we will delve into the opulent world of the grand tour in the 19th century . Embark on a journey through Europe’s most magnificent cities, immersed in a cultural adventure that defined an era . Join me as we explore the elegance, extravagance, and allure of this iconic 19th-century tradition.

Table of Contents

The Grand Tour: Exploring the World in the 19th Century

The Grand Tour: Exploring the World in the 19th Century was a cultural phenomenon that emerged during this period. The Grand Tour was a trip undertaken by young European aristocrats, primarily from Britain, as part of their education and socialization. It involved traveling across Europe, particularly to cities such as Paris, Rome, Florence, and Venice, to experience art, architecture, literature, and culture firsthand.

The 19th century was a time of great exploration and discovery, and the Grand Tour provided an opportunity for affluent individuals to expand their horizons. It allowed them to immerse themselves in different societies, languages, and customs, thus broadening their understanding of the world.

Through the Grand Tour, these young travelers visited important historical sites, attended cultural events, and met influential figures, including artists, scholars, and politicians. They collected art and antiquities, which they later brought back to their homes, thereby influencing the cultural tastes and trends of the time.

Moreover, the Grand Tour played a significant role in the development of tourism as we know it today. It led to the establishment of luxury hotels, guidebooks, and travel agencies catering to the needs of these affluent travelers.

Overall, the Grand Tour was an essential aspect of the 19th-century society, shaping the cultural exchange and exploration of the time. It had a lasting impact on both the individuals who embarked on these journeys and the wider society .

FOR SALE: 1900 Gilded Age Mansion

The biggest shocks and surprises on the grand tour, what did the grand tour entail during the 19th century.

The Grand Tour was a traditional journey undertaken by young aristocrats and wealthy individuals during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was an educational and cultural pilgrimage that typically lasted several months or even years. The tour primarily involved traveling through Europe, especially Italy, but could also include other destinations like France, Germany, and Greece.

During the 19th century , the Grand Tour became even more popular and accessible due to advancements in transportation such as steamships and railways. It was seen as an essential part of a young person’s education, providing them with exposure to different cultures, art, architecture, and history.

The typical itinerary of the Grand Tour varied, but it often included stops in major cities and cultural centers like Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, and Athens. These destinations offered an opportunity to visit prominent museums, archaeological sites, and historical landmarks. Visiting famous art collections, attending performances at renowned theaters, and participating in social events were also important components of the journey.

During their travels, tourists would hire local guides, often called “cicerones,” who would provide them with insights into the local culture and history. These guides would accompany the tourists on visits to famous landmarks, explaining their significance and enhancing the overall experience.

The Grand Tour also had a social aspect, as it allowed young individuals to network and forge connections with fellow aristocrats and influential people. They would attend social gatherings, parties, and balls, which served as opportunities to meet potential partners and discuss matters of mutual interest.

Overall, the Grand Tour was a transformative experience for those who undertook it. It broadened their horizons, refined their tastes, and contributed to their personal growth and cultural enrichment. It also played a significant role in shaping European cultural attitudes, as tourists brought back ideas, art, and fashion trends from their journeys, influencing the societies they came from.

What was the significance of the Grand Tour and why was it important?

The Grand Tour held great significance in the 19th century as it was an important rite of passage for young upper-class European men. It was a traditional journey undertaken by wealthy individuals from Western Europe to explore the cultural and historical highlights of the continent.

The Grand Tour was important for several reasons:

1. Education and Cultural Enlightenment: The primary purpose of the Grand Tour was to provide young men with a comprehensive education that went beyond academic studies. They were exposed to the arts, literature, architecture, history, and classical languages. This exposure to different cultures and ideas broadened their knowledge and refined their tastes.

2. Social and Networking Opportunities: The Grand Tour served as a social and networking platform for young men to connect with fellow aristocrats, intellectuals, and influential people they encountered along their journey. Building connections and alliances were crucial for their future roles in society, politics, and business.

3. Cultivating Maturity and Worldliness: By embarking on the Grand Tour, young men were exposed to diverse landscapes, languages, and customs. This experience helped them develop a sense of maturity and worldly sophistication, enabling them to better navigate society upon their return. They were expected to gain an understanding of other cultures and showcase their refined manners and knowledge acquired during the journey.

4. Collecting Art and Cultural Artefacts: The Grand Tour often involved acquiring art, antiquities, and cultural artifacts. Young men collected these treasures as a way to display their wealth, taste, and knowledge. These collections would not only embellish their own residences but also contribute to the development of museums and private collections across Europe.

5. Prestige and Status: Undertaking the Grand Tour was seen as a mark of prestige and status in society. It demonstrated one’s wealth, social standing, and commitment to personal growth. Completing a successful Grand Tour could enhance one’s reputation and open doors to greater opportunities and associations.

The Grand Tour played a significant role in the 19th century by providing young upper-class men with a well-rounded education, networking opportunities, and a chance to cultivate maturity and sophistication. It also served as a display of status and prestige within society. The cultural impact of the Grand Tour can still be seen today through the artworks and cultural artifacts collected during these journeys.

What is the history of the grand tour?

The Grand Tour was a form of educational travel that became popular amongst the aristocracy and upper class in the 18th and 19th centuries. It originated in England and involved young men from wealthy families embarking on a journey across Europe to gain cultural, historical, and social experiences.

The primary purpose of the Grand Tour was to complete one’s education by exposing oneself to the art, architecture, history, and literature of different European countries. It was often viewed as a finishing touch to a formal education and provided young men with an opportunity to refine their manners and knowledge of foreign languages.

The journey typically lasted several months to a year and would involve visiting major cities and cultural centers such as Paris, Rome, Venice, and Florence. Participants would hire guides, known as couriers, who would accompany them and provide knowledge and assistance throughout the trip.

During the 19th century, the popularity of the Grand Tour increased as advancements in transportation, such as the development of railways and steamships, made travel more accessible and convenient. This allowed larger numbers of people to undertake the journey and expanded the range of destinations that could be visited.

The Grand Tour had a profound impact on European society as it exposed travelers to diverse cultures and ideas, leading to the exchange of knowledge and the spread of Enlightenment ideals. It also led to the establishment of networks and connections that played a significant role in politics, diplomacy, and the arts.

However, by the end of the 19th century , the Grand Tour began to decline in popularity. The emergence of mass tourism and the accessibility of international travel meant that the exclusivity and educational purpose of the Grand Tour were diminished. Additionally, the rise of nationalism and the changing political landscape in Europe made the idea of a unified European education less appealing.

The Grand Tour was an educational journey undertaken by the upper class during the 18th and 19th centuries. It provided young men with an opportunity to gain cultural experiences, refine their education, and establish connections across Europe. While it played a significant role in shaping European society and culture, its popularity declined as travel became more accessible and the political landscape changed.

What was the influence of the Grand Tour?

The Grand Tour had a significant influence during the 19th century. It was a traditional trip taken by young upper-class Europeans, particularly British aristocrats, to travel and experience the cultural and historical sites of Europe. This educational journey typically lasted several months to a year and was considered an essential part of a young person’s education.

The influence of the Grand Tour can be seen in various aspects:

1. Cultural Enrichment: The Grand Tour allowed travelers to visit major European cities such as Paris, Rome, Florence, and Athens, where they could study art, architecture, history, and classical literature. They would often commission renowned artists to create portraits, acquire valuable art collections, and purchase souvenirs as symbols of their cultural refinement.

2. Social Networking: The Grand Tour provided opportunities for young aristocrats to engage with fellow travelers, diplomats, and influential figures across Europe. This social networking helped establish connections, negotiate alliances, and gain a deeper understanding of European politics and society.

3. Architectural and Artistic Influence: Many wealthy travelers were inspired by the magnificent architecture, sculptures, and artworks they encountered during their journey. They brought back various architectural styles and artistic influences to their home countries, contributing to the development of neoclassical and romantic movements in art and architecture.

4. Educational Reform: The knowledge and experiences gained during the Grand Tour influenced educational reforms in the 19th century. It highlighted the importance of a broad and liberal education that encompassed not only academic subjects but also exposure to different cultures and societies.

5. Tourism Industry: The popularity of the Grand Tour led to the growth of the tourism industry in Europe. Travel agencies, guidebooks, hotels, and transportation services emerged to cater to the needs of affluent travelers, ultimately contributing to the development of modern tourism.

The Grand Tour had a profound impact on 19th-century Europe. It played a crucial role in shaping the cultural, social, architectural, artistic, and educational landscape of the time. The experiences and influences gained during the Grand Tour continue to resonate in various aspects of European society and heritage today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the purpose and significance of the grand tour in the 19th century.

The grand tour in the 19th century was a cultural and educational journey undertaken by young European aristocrats and wealthy individuals. It had several purposes and held great significance during this time period.

1. Educational and Cultural Enlightenment: The grand tour was seen as an essential part of a young person’s education, particularly for gentlemen. It provided an opportunity to gain first-hand experience and knowledge about art, architecture, literature, and classical culture. By visiting prominent cities such as Rome, Florence, and Paris, travelers were exposed to the masterpieces of history and engaged with renowned artists and intellectuals.

2. Social Networking: The grand tour served as a way for young aristocrats to establish social connections and expand their networks. They would attend social gatherings, parties, and events hosted by influential individuals they met during their travels. These connections were valuable for political, business, and marriage prospects.

3. Symbol of Wealth and Status: Undertaking a grand tour required considerable financial resources, making it a display of wealth and social standing. Only the privileged few who could afford the expenses associated with travel, accommodation, and lavish expenditures during the journey could embark on such a tour. It became a status symbol for the upper class.

4. Collection of Art and Antiquities: One of the aims of the grand tour was to acquire valuable art, antiquities, and souvenirs to showcase one’s taste and refinement. Travelers would visit famous art galleries, archaeological sites, and markets to purchase artworks, sculptures, and other artifacts to bring back home.

5. Personal Growth and Independence: The grand tour offered a unique opportunity for young individuals to mature, gain independence, and develop their personal character. They were exposed to new cultures, languages, and customs, which broadened their perspectives and shaped their understanding of the world.

Overall, the grand tour played a significant role in shaping the cultural, social, and intellectual development of the 19th-century elite. It provided them with invaluable experiences, knowledge, and connections that played a crucial role in their personal and professional lives.

How did the grand tour shape the cultural, artistic, and intellectual development of individuals in the 19th century?

The grand tour had a significant impact on the cultural, artistic, and intellectual development of individuals in the 19th century. This traditional journey through Europe, particularly popular among the upper class, provided participants with a firsthand experience of different cultures, art, and historical landmarks.

One of the most substantial effects of the grand tour was the exposure to diverse cultural traditions and practices. Travelers would visit multiple countries, immersing themselves in the languages, customs, and traditions of each place. This exposure broadened their horizons and fostered a more cosmopolitan worldview.

In terms of artistic development, the grand tour offered aspiring artists the opportunity to view and study masterpieces of various European art movements. They would visit renowned galleries, museums, and patronize local artists. This exposure to different styles and techniques influenced their own artistic growth and allowed them to incorporate different elements into their work.

Intellectually, the grand tour provided access to some of the most esteemed educational institutions in Europe. Many participants would attend lectures and engage in intellectual conversations with scholars, philosophers, and other influential figures they encountered during their journey. This intellectual exchange allowed for the sharing of ideas, leading to the development of new perspectives and thoughts. Additionally, the travelers’ encounters with different societies and cultures challenged their preconceived notions, forcing them to critically analyze and question their own beliefs.

Furthermore, the grand tour also had a societal impact. It served as a rite of passage for young men from aristocratic families and was seen as an essential part of their education. Those who had undertaken the grand tour were often admired and respected within their own social circles, as their experiences gave them a sense of sophistication and cultural refinement.

Overall, the grand tour played a crucial role in shaping the cultural, artistic, and intellectual development of individuals in the 19th century. It opened doors to new perspectives, influenced artistic styles, and fostered intellectual growth. The impact of this traditional European journey can still be seen today in the cultural traditions and artistic influences that emerged during this period.

What were some common destinations and routes taken during the grand tour in the 19th century?

During the 19th century, the Grand Tour was a popular journey undertaken by wealthy individuals from Britain and other European countries to broaden their cultural knowledge and experiences. The common destinations of the Grand Tour varied, but some of the most popular stops included:

1. Italy: Italy was considered the highlight of the Grand Tour. Travelers would visit cities like Rome, Florence, Venice, and Naples to explore ancient ruins such as the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Pompeii. They would also appreciate the Renaissance art and architecture found in famous galleries and churches like the Vatican Museums and the Uffizi Gallery.

2. France: France was another significant destination on the Grand Tour. Paris, with its opulent palaces, museums, and theaters, attracted many travelers. The Palace of Versailles, the Louvre Museum, and the Paris Opera were among the must-visit sites.

3. Greece: Greece held great fascination due to its ties with ancient civilization. Athens was a crucial stop to admire iconic landmarks such as the Parthenon and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

4. Egypt: The allure of Egyptian antiquities, particularly the pyramids and temples along the Nile, made Egypt an essential part of the Grand Tour itinerary. Travelers would often embark on Nile cruises to explore attractions like the Valley of the Kings and the Luxor Temple.

5. Switzerland: The picturesque landscapes of Switzerland, including the Swiss Alps, lakes, and charming towns like Lucerne and Interlaken, provided a refreshing contrast to the more historically focused destinations.

As for the routes , there wasn’t a fixed path for the Grand Tour, as it could last several months or even years. However, a typical route might involve sailing from Britain to mainland Europe, then proceeding southwards through France towards Italy. From there, travelers might cross the Mediterranean Sea to Greece and then head eastwards to Egypt before returning to Europe via Switzerland or other countries.

Overall, the Grand Tour allowed travelers to experience different cultures, immerse themselves in art and history, and further their education in a time when international travel was an arduous undertaking.

The grand tour in the 19th century was an extraordinary journey that allowed young Europeans to broaden their horizons and immerse themselves in the rich cultural heritage of the continent. With rivalries between nations, political unrest , and the allure of new discoveries, this period witnessed a surge in travel and exploration.

The grand tour offered an unparalleled opportunity for young individuals to experience art, architecture, and history firsthand, thereby acquiring a refined education that would elevate their social status. They were exposed to the masterpieces of renowned artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael, as well as the architectural wonders of Rome, Florence, and Venice.

Moreover, the grand tour provided a platform for the exchange of ideas and knowledge across borders. Young travelers were able to meet with intellectuals, philosophers, and scholars, engaging in thoughtful conversations that influenced their perspectives and shaped their understanding of the world. This cultural exchange fostered a sense of unity among European nations and contributed to the development of a shared European identity.

However, it is important to acknowledge that the grand tour was only accessible to a privileged few. It was primarily reserved for the wealthy elite who could afford the expenses associated with such an extensive journey. This exclusivity perpetuated social hierarchies and limited access to knowledge and cultural experiences.

Overall, the grand tour was a remarkable phenomenon of the 19th century, transforming young Europeans into cultured individuals who appreciated the beauty and history of their continent. While it had its limitations, this tradition left a lasting impact on art, literature, and social norms, shaping the cultural landscape of Europe for generations to come.

To learn more about this topic, we recommend some related articles:

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Untangling the Cultural Web: The Treatment of Widows in 19th Century India

The Legacy of French Illustrators in the 19th Century: A Visual Journey

The Role of Black Servants in 19th Century England: A Historical Perspective

The Grand Tour- the most important time in the history of tourism?

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The Grand Tour isn’t only a TV show about cars, in actual fact, The Grand Tour is a very important part of the history of travel and tourism (and I expect this was the rationale for the name of the show ‘The Grand Tour too!). In this article I am going to teach you what The Grand Tour was, why it was so important to tourism and where the popular Grand Tour destinations were. Ready to learn more? Read on…

What is the Grand Tour?

Why is the grand tour important to tourism, the grand tour- paris, the grand tour- france onwards, the grand tour- heading north, the grand tour in the media, further reading.

The Grand Tour was the name of a traditional trip through Europe, undertaken by Upper Class boys as they were coming of age. It was mostly the British nobility and landed gentry who went on a Grand Tour, but this did extend to other wealthy Europeans and, later, South and North Americans as well as Filipinos. 

According to The National Trust , the term ‘Grand Tour’ was coined by the Catholic priest and travel writer Richard Lassels (c.1603-68), who used it in his influential guidebook The Voyage of Italy (published 1670) to describe young lords travelling abroad to learn about art, architecture and antiquity.

The Grand Tour was a form of travel from around 1550-1850. It was at its most popular during the 18th century, and was said to be the way to end a boy’s education – making them a man. Often, these adolescent boys would be accompanied by tutors who would make the scenes in front of them come to life. It was more of a hands-on education, much like how we have field trips today. The Grand Tour, however, was much more lengthy.

This rite of passage was a very important point in the timeline of the history of tourism – but why?

The Grand Tour is important to the overall history of tourism because it represented travel for educational and recreational purposes rather than, for example, trade or military reasons. It contributed greatly to the cultural, social, architectural, gastronomic, political and artistic evolution of the home country’s of these travellers – especially when, as time went on, it became accessible to not only gentry but artists, collectors, designers and more. These people would take influence from the things they saw abroad. Buildings in Britain would follow architectural styles the designer had seen in Italy , for example.

It is also so important because it was during this large timeframe that the term ‘tourist’ was first properly used. Without it, the history of tourism as we know it would look massively different. People were travelling en masse (although not in groups, per se, as this was before proper public transport existed), visiting new destinations and bringing back stories of their trips. As mentioned, The Grand Tour expanded from being purely a British upper class thing to being something taken by the working class, as well as nobility from other countries. It was highly influential.

The Grand Tour paved the way for the ongoing popularity of museums – as it was clear that people who travelled to different countries often had an interest in learning about the history and culture . It proved there was a need for lodgings for people visiting from out of town; it encouraged the growth of restaurants so visitors could try the local cuisines and so on. Essentially, it was the start of what we now know as tourism because it had such a large and visible influence.

Grand Tour destinations

There was no set itinerary for a Grand Tour. It was up to the individual, and often influenced by their interests or finances. However, most people followed the same vague outline at least. Paris and Rome were firm favourites along with much of the rest of Italy, but a typical itinerary might have looked something like this – if travelling from Britain, that is…

One would start their trip properly in Dover, on the south coast of England. This remains a popular transport hub for people travelling out of the country. From here, our Grand tourist would head by boat across the channel to Ostend in Belgium or either Calais or Le Havre in France depending on their preference. Here, the tourist and their tutor (and servants, if they had any) would decide on the next move.

Often this would be to purchase a coach to transport them from place to place. This would generally be sold on again when it was time to get back on another boat – although some travellers would dismantle theirs and take it with them on their trip.

The first major stop on anyone’s Grand Tour was Paris. The capital of France and the city of love and romance, as well as baked goods, beautiful artwork and breathtaking views, Paris was an obvious choice. Grand Tourists would often hire a French speaking guide to accompany them throughout the entirety of the trip, because it was Europe’s dominant language at the time. Paris was an ideal place to acquire some to join you on a Grand Tour!

Pairs held a world of opportunities, too. Fencing tutorials, dance lessons, French language tutorships, riding practice and so much more. On top of this was the sophistication of the French high society, which would help to polish the traveller’s manners for his eventual return to England.

After getting to know Paris, one would make the journey across to Switzerland to visit either Lusanne or Geneva. This would be only a short stop, however, in order to prepare for an often-difficult journey across the Alps. The really wealthy Grand Tourists would be carried across by their servants, but generally everyone struggled together.

Awaiting them on the other side of the Alps, of course, was Italy. This is typically where our Grand Tourists would spend the most time, visiting different cities and generally exploring over the course of quite a few months. Turin and Milan would be early stops, followed by an extensive stay in Florence. Home to a larger Anglo-Italian diasporic community, Florence was an excellent part of a Grand Tour and one which allowed for a lot of fun and socialising. From here there would be shorter trips to Pisa, Padua, Bologna and Venice – the latter being a high point for many.

But this didn’t conclude the Italian part of a Grand Tour at all. Venice gave way to Rome – particularly for the study of the ancient ruins here as well as the artwork of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque time periods. From Rome some of the more curious travellers went to Naples, where there was a big music scene, and even (after the mid 18-th century, of course) to Pompeii and Herculaneum to see the recent discoveries. Later still, some of the most adventurous Grand Tourists headed to Siciliy to see even more archaeological sites, Greece for the sunshine and culture, and Malta for its history. For the most part, however, Naples or Rome were the usual end to an Italian adventure.

From Italy, most Grand Tourists would head back across the Alps to parts of Europe which were more dominated by the Germanic language. This included Vienna, Innsbruck, Dresden, Potsdam and Berlin – all beautiful cities with distinctive architecture and beautiful culture nuances. Some would even study at the universities in Heidelberg or Munich to round off their trip. Finally were flying visits to Holland or Flanders, before travelling back across the channel and returning to England full of the warm wonders of European travel and education.

By looking at this route, it almost seems reminiscent of an itinerary. And this is true, and is another reason why the Grand Tour is so important to tourism – it was the blueprint for many itineraries travellers and tourists still use today.

There are few pieces of media which actually depict someone going off on a Grand Tour – but we can see references to it, and influence from it, in many media stories. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, in fact, was said to be conceived during her own Grand Tour; the doctor in the story is born in Naples and travels throughout Europe.

There are various non-fiction books which make great reference to the Grand Tour, such as Francis Bacon’s Of Travel – a guide which is still relevant today – and some books which were more of a hybrid between fiction and non-fiction. These include Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad and Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Italian Journey.

We can’t forget, of course, the TV show which takes its name from this early tourist phenomenon. The Grand Tour is a British motoring TV series, featuring Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson. Initially, it centred around car reviews and timed laps, motoring challenges and races, studio segments, and celebrity guests – with the ‘studio’ being a large portable tent. They filmed in different locations across the globe, hence the name. In a BBC article before the show was first launched, Clarkson said that the name brought to mind the tradition of Grand Tours, and reflected how the show would be filmed in different countries.

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Top 10 books about the Grand Tour

Adding finish to young aristocrats’ education in centuries past, and recorded by Goethe, Sterne and others, these alluring journeys had a very dark side

T he Grand Tour was one of the defining educational experiences of the 18th century, a kind of travelling finishing school, comprising aristocratic visits to ancient cultural sites, princely art galleries, and exclusive Enlightenment soirees. Typically, British “tourists” (the word dates from 1772) visited France, Germany and Italy. Some, like Byron, even went on to Greece and Turkey for headier pursuits. It was a year of sightseeing, hobnobbing and sex before returning home with good memories – and possibly syphilis. But this was strictly an elite experience. It was very much not for the oiks.

My new novel tells the story of two brothers dispatched on to the Grand Tour in the 1760s to make fashionable new friends. Instead they meet the magnificently savage Lavelle, who destroys their plans. There is plenty of sex and culture in the book, but as a writer, I am more interested in the other side of history, the history of outsiders.

The Grand Tour is the ultimate story of insiders: rich, white Europeans go on an exclusive jolly before commencing a life of power and privilege. We can all imagine a certain blond-haired chap having done it as a youth. Writing my novel, I was asking: is there an outsider history of the Grand Tour? Does the other even exist in the Enlightenment, which spoke of freedom, but from the most elite vantage point?

1. The British Abroad: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century by Jeremy Black (1992) If you want a readable introduction to the subject, this is it. It covers everything from the harsh realities of life on the road, the still-perilous journeys, that discovery of sex and suddenly running out of money 1,000 miles from home. It also shows how unforeseen events (the French Revolution) could suddenly change everything. Should you too be living through a time where unforeseen events have suddenly changed everything, I recommend it.

2. Of Travel by Sir Francis Bacon (1625) Gleaned from his own journeys around France, Italy and Spain, polymath genius Bacon recommends travellers should keep a journal, meet locals, get them to show you around, visit many famous sights, and regard travel as an illuminating experience. It is amazing to think these were new ideas then, but as with so much of modern life, Bacon had to show us first.

3. The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett (1751) Frankly, Peregrine Pickle is a pain in the arse. The Grand Tour is only part of this story – the hero only gets as far as France before turning back – but he is cantankerous, offensive and hilarious right across his travels, not least in poisonous pen portraits of literary enemies such as Henry Fielding. George Orwell hated the book, deriding its snobbish, elitist impulses. But then again, Orwell was proudly, openly homophobic.

4. Travels through France and Italy by Tobias Smollett (1766) Despite Peregrine Pickle’s awfulness, you still want to like Smollett because of the circumstances in which he wrote his hugely influential Grand Tour travelogue: grief-stricken, fleeing the death of his only child. But the same wonderfully awful Smollett who insulted and berated through that book now picks stupid, pointless real-life fights all the way across France. He hates his travel companions and is dubiously withering about Catholic southern Europe. But his wicked – in the real sense – humour and perceptive eye make this glorious, shameless, appalling fun.

5. A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne (1768) Written in response to Smollett’s travelogue, it was allegedly inspired when the two writers met. Sterne so disliked Smollett that he created the odious, fabulously named Smelfungus, whom his own alter ego, Yorick, meets en route. Wandering aimlessly around France, Yorick is more interested in sex than culture. In so doing, Sterne cleverly reminds us of a big part of the Tour’s appeal for young British people: sex.

6. Sultry Climates: Travel and Sex Since the Grand Tour by Ian Littlewood (2001) Speaking of which, this very entertaining book explores the Grand Tour more fully as an opportunity for sex of every variety, frowned upon back home. It also considers the influence of the Tour on how we’ve holidayed ever since. Are you a Connoisseur, a Pilgrim or a Rebel? This book shows you how the Grand Tour shaped how you travel.

7. Italian Journey by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1816) Where the British snigger and satirise, the Germans bring poetry. Italian Journey is a lovely work suffused with Goethe’s sincere, lush Romanticism – genuinely new after the hard-eyed satires of the 18th century. Ruminations on art, culture, history, climate, even geology hover beautifully, while Goethe shows how Italy seemed to the Grand Tourist – a great civilisation simultaneously alive and in ruins. Which is all great: but still white, male, elite business as usual.

8. Ladies of the Grand Tour by Brian Dolan (1992) Women rarely feature much in writing about the Tour but Dolan’s survey captures its liberating – sometimes revolutionary – impact on British women, celebrating them as writers, thinkers and observers. It finds interesting links between travel and radicalism for that first generation of women we now see as feminists, for example, Mary Wollstonecraft .

9. Mary Shelley’s History of a Six Weeks’ Tour (1817) Speaking of whom, you could probably make a good argument for the influence of the Tour on Shelley’s Frankenstein, but Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter also wrote an account of her own experience of the Grand Tour. Today, it’s a fascinating document of a politically radical young woman venturing off on her own adventures, claiming a female voice in an otherwise male space. And what a voice – insightful, polemical, literary – and all written when she was just 20. Marvellous.

10. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) But while the upper classes had such fun on the Tour, many people in the 18th century were on far darker journeys. Equiano’s autobiographical masterpiece travels from his childhood in (what is now) Nigeria to slavery in the Caribbean and freedom – and fame in Britain as a leading black activist. His book thus becomes a horrifically clever inversion of the classic Grand Tour narrative, boldly smashing open the vanity of so much of the Enlightenment.

In my book, Lavelle casts a withering eye over the self-regard of the Enlightenment. He retains his ire most of all for the adored Voltaire, who was also an antisemite who sucked up to autocrats. “The world is rotten,” Lavelle says. “Lovers of books, do you think they do not rape their maids? And philosophers, do they not whip their slaves?” Equiano teaches us the truth of 18th-century Europe as much as Voltaire, Sterne and Smollett. It is he, the outsider, who tells the truth of history, every bit as much as – or more than – its privileged heroes.

The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle by Neil Blackmore is published by Cornerstone. To order a copy, go to guardianbookshop.com .

• Laurence Sterne
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Mary Shelley

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The New York Times

Frugal traveler | what is the grand tour, what is the grand tour.

To some people, it implies an extended jaunt around Western Europe. To others, it’s simply a long trip taken after college, whether to Southeast Asia, Central America or Southern France. In fact, the Grand Tour is all of these and more. Even though the basic contours of the Grand Tour were established in the 17th century — as a kind of cultural finishing school for affluent young gents — it has mutated to meet the shifting demands of generations of travelers.

“The classic Grand Tour was the wealthy, young man who spent several months — at least —traveling in Europe after finishing his formal schooling,” said Lynne Withey, author of “Grand Tours and Cooks’ Tours: A History of Leisure Travel, 1750-1915” (William Morrow, 1997). The young man typically hailed from England, and the tour, she said, served as “hiatus between adolescence and adulthood, between formal schooling and working — not that most of these people worked in the sense that we think of as work.”

The Grand Tourist “took in Paris and Italy and sometimes Greece ,” Ms. Withey said. “Italy especially was the high point, because these were people who were classically trained, and Rome and Greece were the cradle of Western civilization for them.”

Along the way, the young man would look at, and frequently buy, Renaissance paintings. Going to the opera was de rigueur. As was, in certain circles, sneering at the manners and customs of the French. To some extent, the Grand Tourist would also sow his wild oats, despite the presence of a “bear leader,” the tutor or clergyman who would accompany him to guide his studies and mind his behavior.

He would do this without any of the modern comforts of traveling: roads, railroads, hotels, restaurants, telephones and international banking networks. For transportation, he hired carriages. For lodging, he bunked at country inns or carried letters of introduction to family friends and business contacts in major cities. For money, he would rely on gold coins and letters of credit — “a pretty complicated system which I don’t even fully understand myself,” Ms. Withey said. Despite the young man’s wealth, the Grand Tour was never an easy journey.

By the middle of the 19th century, however, railroads were changing the Grand Tour. The Englishman Thomas Cook offered the first packaged tours and opened travel up to the middle class. This not only led to more standardized lodgings and meals, but it also spurred wealthier travelers to seek out their own enclaves, like the French Riviera , away from the masses.

The introduction of commercial aviation in the early 20th century — not to mention World War I — completely upended the classic Grand Tour, and by the 1960s it had become a low-budget European expedition for college grads, often in a Volkswagen bug. (This was my mother’s Grand Tour.) In the 1970s, the Grand Tour stretched as far as Kabul, and today it’s as likely to include Bangkok and Buenos Aires as Berlin and Brussels .

But the one thing that these disparate Grand Tours had in common was literature. From the beginning, the trip was as much a literary endeavor as a touristic one.

As early as 1611, Thomas Coryat wrote “Coryate’s Crudities,” an account of his “travells in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia commonly called the Grisons country, Helvetia alias Switzerland, some parts of high Germany and the Netherlands.” (Click here to read it on Google Books .)

In the 18th century, it seemed as if every Englishman who crossed the Channel felt compelled to pen a volume or two about his experience. Rather than reading all of them individually, I’m leafing through “The Grand Tour: 1592-1796,” edited by Roger Hudson, a well-illustrated compendium that traces the Grand Tour through the writings of Laurence Sterne, Horace Walpole, James Boswell and Edward Gibbon.

Ms. Withey in particular recommends “ Boswell on the Grand Tour ,” two volumes that follow Boswell, the Samuel Johnson biographer, through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica and France . “Boswell was a pretty tolerant and adventuresome young man,” she said. “He did the kind of classic thing — and he also sowed his wild oats. But he didn’t have the haughtiness or intolerance of a lot of people, and of course he’s a wonderful writer.”

By the late 19th century, American writers were following in Boswell’s literary footsteps. Henry James mined the Grand Tour for fiction (“ Daisy Miller ”), while Mark Twain mined it for comedy in “ The Innocents Abroad ,” his account of a five-month American steamboat journey to Europe and the Holy Land.

“Off he went on June 8, 1867, a young journalist with his disarming wit and insight,” said Darrel Schoeling, co-owner of Longitude Books , a travel bookstore in Manhattan. “It just seems so clever; he went off to report on basically the horrors of group travel. And it’s all the places, and it’s lots of fun, and it’s also inspiring, because he managed to keep such a great attitude about the hell that he went through.”

Early in the 20th century, you get Hemingway and Fitzgerald writing of Americans’ extended stays in France, and in more recent years, the Grand Tour becomes fodder for the movies, from the 1969 adventure comedy “ If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium ” to the 2004 teen flick “Eurotrip” (tag line: “No actual Europeans were harmed in the making of this film”). And, of course, one can’t forget National Lampoon’s 1985 cinéma vérité classic “European Vacation .”

For my part, I’m a big fan of Laurence Sterne and his parodies of travel writing (click here to read my Times essay about his literary lineage ), but I’m leaving him at home on this trip. Instead, I’m taking “The Grand Tour: 1592-1796,” “The Innocents Abroad” and “The Human Animal,” by Émile Zola (which I’m trying to read in French).

These, however, shouldn’t last me more than a few weeks, so I need your advice: What books should this Grand Tourist pick up next? And where can I find great bookstores (preferably used-book stores) along my route?

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A great book to get in the mood for travel, and with plenty of Grand Tour flavor – “My Uncle Oswald” by Roald Dahl.

A good african restaurant in Paris:

Le Malibu. 44, Rue Tiquetonne. 75002. Tel : 01 42 36 62 70

I recommend reading Maxine Feifer’s “Tourism in History. From Impersial Rome to the Present” (New York: Stein and Day, 1985), which I just took up after spending the last 12-weeks traveling and with the hope of learning more about the history of travel as it pertains to culture as work and not wholly to leisure. Maybe this distinction between the Traveler and the Tourist that I draw is already flawed? Anyway, these are two other book recommendations: Oliver Sack’s “Oaxaca Journal,” one of my favorites in how it combines science, hobby writing and travel literature; and Edith Wharton’s “French Ways and Their Meaning” (Vermont: Countryman Press, 1997), originally published in 1919, which I read some years ago just before my first trip to Paris at the recommendation of a friend—who is always falling in love, and is the primary motivation of her travels.

henry james’s travel writing is a superb companion to european travel. ‘italian hours’ in particular (just released in an edition by penguin) is the most thoughtful, perceptive, and eloquent evocation of italy i’ve come across.

Are you going to Oxford? There is a small town in Wales completely dedicated to used book stores about an hour’s bus ride from Oxford. It’s called Hay-on-Wye. The bus careens through winding roads with impossible names, past rich brown earth and saturated green grass and plants you at the crossroads in the heart of town. The best way to navigate is to have a type of book in mind – I was on a quest for rare children’s books – and ask locals to point you in the right direction. I remember walking all alone nearly two miles out of town – suddenly realizing it was just me and the sheep on the hillside at this moment! – to a thatch-roofed building next to a thatch-roofed house where I happily sat on the stone floor and sifted through the greatest treasure of children’s books, all in a jumble. Lunch was a baked potato with cheese in a local pub, and rarely have I felt happier or more self-indulgent.

Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street should be your first stop in London. Its long oak galleries and well chosen selection of travel books and related literature undoubtedly inspired many an Edwardian to embark upon the Grand Tour. Marylebone too is not to be missed. In this resident’s view, it’s London’s best urban village. We have the Wallace Collection (a private mansion — open to the public gratis — full of Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and much more), a Sir John Soane church, the secret offices of the OSS, The Royal Academy of Music, the Wigmore Hall, Georgian terraced houses, lovely red brick mansion blocks, and cafes. Byron was baptised here, Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Arthur Henry Hallam, Florence Nightingale and a variety of Pre-Raphaelite poets lived here too.

the real, original Shakespeare and Co bookstore in Paris. My mom worked there in the 60’s on her own extended “Grand Tour,” and maybe you can meet the ancient, grumpy and brilliant guy who runs the place, if he’s still around…

Dear Matt, To my opninion the next book should be In Europe: Travels Through The Twentieth Century by the Dutch author Geert Mak. In this book he travels through Europe following the continent’s history. It starts with the World Expo in Paris 1900 and ends in the ruined city of Sarajevo. In between he travels the battle field of World War 1 and 2 and the Spanish civil war and historic places like Prague, Budapest, Gdansk and Tsjernobyl. This is the Amazon-link: //www.amazon.com/Europe-Travels-Through-Twentieth-Century/dp/0307280578/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211028177&sr=1-1

In Amsterdam the best bookstores are located at around Spui: Athenaeum, American Bookstore and Scheltema. Utrecht has some nice second hand stores along The Old Canal (Oudegracht). I could show you around and introduce you to some Dutch writers when you are in the Netherlands.

Best regards,

Willem van Zeeland ph +31 6 15018371

1) How about Graham Greene “Travels with my aunt”?

2) There’s a Shakespeare and Co. bookstore on the left bank across the river from Notre Dame in Paris.

//www.shakespeareco.org/

Does your 100 euro budget include ALL travel costs, or is that separate?

Having made a few Grand Tours back in the 60s, I need to add a few things to this otherwise lovely account. As part of the low-budget tour, hitchhiking was by far the more common option than driving a VW bug. Everyone hitched and stayed in hostels, one of the great ways to meet people from other countries. Thumbing was efficient, pleasant, and safe. (Alas, it was all those in the US in the 60s, too – I thumbed to LA from DC in 4 days in ’68.) The other common way to go was via Eurailpass which not only permitted jumping on and off any train as the spirit moved you, but gave you the option of sleeping on the overnight train when you didn’t have money for pensiones.

For France reading: Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French.

I find it hard to believe that you have made it impossible to print this article. In fact, it doesn’t even seem possible to save it. How antediluvian of you. The only option is to hope I never miss an installment of this series so I can accumulate a stack of inky, odd shaped bits of newspaper as a record of the adventure.

La Central is an amazing bookstore in Barcelona.

Dear Mr. Gross, if you happen to include Amsterdam, my native city, I’ll be happy to give you the (free) local Grand Tour, custom made for you, show you the bookstores you should know, and introduce you to some Dutch people (traditionally a crucial part of any Grand Tour). I’ve just done it this past week for a friend from Mobile, Alabama, a professor and world traveler. I now divide my life between the Gulf Coast and Amsterdam. You’re very welcome here! Let me know, Frans van Rossum

If you intend to see the Balkans, Rebecca West is a must.

Add Tim Moore’s The Grand Tour to your collection. And if you like that, read his French Revolutions, one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.

You should be able to find both in used bookshops in London.

Happy travels…

I was just on line with Capital One who informed me that there is a minimum $10 for cash advances.

The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara. Che documents his travels through South America in this journal. The reader discovers how the journey changes a young Che’s entire outlook; Che’s revolutionary fervor grew from his travels.

On my grand tour in the summer of 1964, my art professor/tour guide used to say “Don’t READ about it… Go out and DO it.” In other words, why waste time reading when you are spending all that effort and money to BE THERE. Read about it before you go, or afterward, when you are sitting around the house; not while you have the oppportunity to be seeing all those new and interesting things. You can read that book in your easy chair, but you can’t see the real Mona Lisa there. By the way, it was the best summer of my life.

I would suggest “The Charterhouse of Parma,” by Stendhal. It’s just a great book; one part comedy, and one part tragedy. And, with a little luck you might see some of the settings for the book while you are in Europe. Have a safe trip and I look forward to your dispatches.

The subway’s not necessarily the cheapest way to get to the center of town. In Madrid, buy yourself a ten-trip ticket for the subway/bus; the cheapest (and, if it’s not rush hour, fastest) way to the center, though, is to take the bus to Avda de América and then from there switch to the subway system. There is a (recently-added) tax that applies for taking the subway fromt he airport directly that makes it more expensive than using two swipes on a ten-trip ticket (although the difference is about 80 euro cents, so about seventeen dollars.)

rick steve’s Europe thru the Backdoor, and/or any of his individual countries’ books. especially good for decent food at low prices and determining WHICH art works to seek out (he provides historical background) and how to make the most of your money. He writes in a humerous way and has great tips about all sorts of things. Have a great time!

Of course, Shakespeare in Paris is a classic. Also, Elephant Books in Barcelona and Massolit Books in Krakow are great little used bookstores-cum-cafes where you can relax a bit…of course, the fun part is that they’re small stores so you’re really at the whim of whatever they have in stock. Have a great trip!

first, i wonder how many “grand tours” were foisted upon youngsters who have fallen in love with the wrong person and have been prescribed travel by their parents ‘to forget’?

books: -“black lamb and gray falcon” by rebecca west -“down and out in paris and london” by george orwell -“empires of the word, a language history of the world” by nicholas ostler -“a man without qualities” by robert musil -“querelle” by jean genet -“charmed circle” by james mellow (i wish “alexandria quartet” by lawrence durrell applied here)

I think there is an English language used bookstore in Paris on Rue LaPlace, near the Luxemburg Gardens. I was wandering around the area, came across it, and picked up Colin Dexter’s Riddle of the Third Mile which kept me entertained on the 11 hour flight to Mauritius later that day.

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American Artists and the Legacy of the Grand Tour, 1880-1960

June 15 – august 26, 2017.

In a historical sense, the Grand Tour was a seventeenth- to eighteenth-century phenomenon in which the young, usually male and aristocratic, members of English and Northern European families visited great cities and societies of the European continent. It was an educational trip, meant largely for cultural exposure and refinement. Art was central to this travel in a number of ways, from visiting masterpieces of painting and architecture, to commissioning portraits, buying art to bring home, and engaging an artist for the journey who would paint the sublime beauty of each destination. This exhibition explores a time from approximately 1880 to 1960 when American artists endeavored to follow in the footsteps of this tradition and trek to Europe for a variety of reasons: study and opportunities to exhibit, illustration on commission, war, and leisure. At the center of their journeys was also the goal of education, for themselves through the process of travel and study and for others through the skills, cultural enlightenment, and artwork they would bring home. The works included in the exhibition represent a range of media, from printmaking to painting, and the work documents the architecture, scenery, and people of Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, England, and France as the artists saw them.

American Artists and the Legacy of the Grand Tour, 1880–1960 is organized by the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery and curated by Margaret F. M. Walker, assistant curator, with support provided by the Fine Arts Gallery Gift Fund and the Sullivan Art Collection Fund.

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Gender, Curiosity, and the Grand Tour

Late-eighteenth-century british travel writing.

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Discussions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European travel have long tended to over-apply the model of the grand tour. It is increasingly recognized now that many British journeys to the Continent knew different motivations and itineraries, and were made from different subject positions than that of the young male aristocrat. An alternative model proposed for female travelers has its own limitations, however. It presents women as more open-minded than men, with a greater eye for detail and keen to escape patriarchal confinement at home. Yet female travelers’ wish and capacity to offer an alternative to the grand-tourist gaze was limited. Still, travel, travel writing, and publishing offered women a chance to explore new social models and lifestyles and develop new forms of personal independence.

Recent decades of historical research on eighteenth-century life and literature have yielded many studies on travel writing. They have also shown an intensified interest in gender. At the crossroads of these two themes, several books and many articles have appeared on the gendered aspects of eighteenth-century travel writing, as well as several studies that put female travelers at the center of their discussion. Many of these focus on British women traveling to the European continent. This article responds to the framework they offer; in particular, two prominent theses on the position of women within the eighteenth-century travel landscape.

The first suggests that the journeys of these female travelers can productively be conceptualized as grand tours. This forms part of a wider trend to call every eighteenth-century cross-border journey in Europe a grand tour. I would like to follow Katherine Turner in her skepsis of the insistence by historians like Brian Dolan, Chloe Chard, and Dennis Porter that “the concept of the Tour … determines the way in which travel in Europe is envisaged and undertaken from the beginning of the seventeenth century up until 1830 or so” (Chard quoted in Turner 2001: 17 ; also Gray 2019 ; and the works cited by Sweet, Goldsmith, and Verhoeven 2017: 6–7, who echo Turner's critique). This conceptualization of all travel as grand tourism seems to imply that the recent scholarly inclusion of female travelers merely confirms what we had already discovered about eighteenth-century travel through earlier examinations of male travelers. And yet, the recent literature also outlines an important difference between the genders.

For a second thesis posits that British women had “more complex motives for traveling” than British men, and that these motives were generally grounded in a discontent with British society. While all men ultimately traveled to the Continent in order to return home more fully aware of Britain's superiority, women “saw home as somehow inadequate” ( Dolan 2002: 9–11 ). Brian Dolan, for instance, in his wide-ranging study Ladies of the Grand Tour, paints a set of unprejudiced, open-minded, politically progressive travelers, eager to escape the restrictions imposed on them by British patriarchal culture and family obligations, and uncommonly accurate and perceptive in their observations. Not for nothing, Dolan's reviewer John Wilton-Ely credits him with being the first scholar to demonstrate the “distinctive contributions” of women travelers (2004). 1 Dolan indeed celebrates a distinctively “female perspective” in his work, women's travelogues’ “accuracy and thoughtfulness,” and their refreshing view (2002: 189, 191). His thesis is exemplary of much of the research in this field, which becomes especially clear if we separate his claim into three more specific subtheses: firstly, that women had a greater eye for detail than men; secondly, that their observations of the unfamiliar exhibited less prejudice; and, thirdly, that they felt under pressure as women to defend their journeys, and as travelers (open to foreign ways) to defend their femininity, their domesticity, and their patriotism.

As to the first point, Katherine Turner has called their travelogues “artless” and “authentic” (2001: 3). Other authors have remarked more specifically that women's writing, to quote Sandra Adickes's landmark study The Social Quest: The Expanded Vision of Four Women Travelers in the Era of the French Revolution, possessed more “authenticity and liveliness” because of their routine interest in household economics and community life ( Adickes 1991: 4 ; Eglin 2001: 103 ; Gilroy 2000: 5 ). Writing about female urban (rather than international) mobility, Martha Jane Musgrove suggests something similar. Her examination of a series of letters to the editor of a daily newspaper by Mary Darby Robinson about London at the turn of the nineteenth century, leads her to conclude that while “the male gaze is disinterested and clinical, female observation … is engaged and sympathetic, preoccupied with the interplay of human relationships” (2009). And in her discussion of the female mobile gaze in the modern period more generally, Deborah Parsons concludes that “women were entering the city with fresh eyes, observing it from within.” While she presents male observers as engaging in a categorizing, ordering activity, watching with “authority yet static detachment,” women's mode of vision was more empirical ( 2000: 7 ).

As to the second point, women have also been credited with an uncommonly open-minded attitude toward foreign cultures and a lack of nationalist bias ( Adickes 1991 ; Eglin 2001 ), sometimes explained by their own position as critics and escapees of restrictions at home ( Dolan 2002 ). That a different analysis is possible, even while recognizing the degree of exceptionality of female international travel, has already been shown by Karin Baumgartner. She introduces the Parisian oeuvre of German journalist Helmina von Chézy, which, published around 1800, frequently dealt with the fashion(s) of the day. According to Baumgartner, it offered a “uniquely female blueprint of how to experience urban space.” Nevertheless, she deftly resists the temptation to state that Chézy wrote from a specifically female or feminine perspective. Instead, Baumgartner analyzes the feuilletons as helping to create new literary genres and a new vision of the modern city, shared by women and men alike ( 2008 ).

As to the third point, several scholars, including Brian Dolan but also Chris Jones and Katherine Turner, have written that women were at pains in their texts to provide suitably feminine reasons for their journeys “to deflect [men's] criticism.” This would suggest that some of the reasons women mentioned in their accounts were merely cosmetic ( Jones 2000 ; also Dolan 2002: 160 ; Turner 2001: 130–147 ).

All three of these subsidiary theses relate to curiosity. Curiosity was, and is, a key travel motivation and a central theme in travel writing generally, but curiosity has also been strongly gendered in European travel history. As Richard Phillips recently argued, travelers’ expressions of curiosity come in several forms. Some travelers present themselves more explicitly as disciplined—scholarly, scientific—in their curiosity, than others. It is significant in this respect that the example he gives of a less disciplined curiosity is from a travel account by a woman, the late-nineteenth-century Elizabeth Banks. She herself “claimed to have been ‘seized with a womanly curiosity’ to learn about the lives of different women” ( 2019: 60 ; also Leask 2002: 4–14, 23–34 ). The choice of this example is probably no coincidence, whether illustrating the nineteenth century or the period that went before. That is, similarly gendered claims were made in the eighteenth century, as will be shown below.

However, neither thesis, and none of the three subtheses about curiosity, does full justice to either female or male travelers of the period. Using the rich primary and secondary source material available, it is possible to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the ways gender and curiosity intersected in the motives, experiences, and testimonies of Continental travelers. Such an understanding might also offer pointers on the gendered experiences and motivations of other travelers than the British, for although most of the literature on the grand tour focuses on British tourists, variations of the same institution existed in other European countries ( Van der Sman 2002 ; Babel and Paravicini 2005 ; Sweet, Goldsmith, and Verhoeven 2017 ). While a comparative analysis of all surviving British Continental travel writing of the later eighteenth century, fair to all genders and socioeconomic groups, is beyond the scope of this article, I will try to show why the ideas outlined above already need adapting for the group of women examined most often: those with the financial means for comparatively independent and leisurely travel. I will look in particular at seven female travel writers in and around the 1790s. Five of them published about their journeys themselves. Together, they make up the greatest part of (untranslated) travel publications by female authors in Britain in that decade. Meanwhile, two of these seven bequeathed manuscripts that were published after their lifetime.

First, I will try to demonstrate that the diversity among travelers but also the commonality of interests between women and men, makes a more serious investigation of the role of social rank necessary, thus further destabilizing the tendency to apply the term “grand tour” to most journeys. Next, I will examine to what extent women's observations demonstrate a particularly female precision. Here, I suggest that much can be gained from taking a literary-historical perspective toward these sources, one that is sensitive to the business of publishing and to literary conventions. Finally, I will try to assess the paramount role that has been claimed for gender, and the wish to escape an oppressive home environment, in shaping travelers’ openness to cultural and political differences.

• The Grand Tour and Other Journeys: Aims and Shapes

The term “grand tour” can be misleading when applied indiscriminately to eighteenth-century travel writing. Because of his large sample of authors, Brian Dolan's study illustrates this particularly well. Both in terms of the gender of the eighteen women whose journeys he presents, and in terms of their social status, they might perhaps not best be described as grand tourists. What is more, both the aims of their journeys and the shapes these took further suggest that we are dealing with many different forms of travel here. In order to clarify this, it is necessary first to look at the contemporary meaning of the term “grand tour,” at who took part, and why.

A “tour,” according to Samuel Johnson's eighteenth-century Dictionary, implied a leisurely journey, a “ramble” with no clear or single destination and without the imperative to reach its destinations as efficiently as possible. Now the grand tour of course distinguished itself from other “roving journeys,” of, for instance, England, Scotland, or France, by taking more time and covering more ground. But “grand” also meant “[g]reat; illustrious; high in power”; “magnificent”; and “[n]oble; sublime; lofty; conceived or expressed with great dignity” ( Johnson 1755–1756 ). Indeed, “grand” pointed to something more than a complex itinerary. Both the tourists themselves and the places they visited were grand. The tourists of the seventeenth and the largest part of the eighteenth century were often sons of the titled elite. Their destinations, moreover, were reminiscent of the illustrious past (Roman Antiquity, the Italian Renaissance) or were the center of present magnificence (Paris was key, but even from the Germans and the Dutch some politeness and wisdom could be gleaned) ( Hurd 1764: 50 ; Towner 1985 ). It was believed that in order for these already privileged tourists to achieve their full potential, they could do with a finishing touch. This was to be acquired abroad, and turned to good use during the remainder of their life in Britain.

British self-confidence grew in the course of the eighteenth century, so much so that cultural critics came to feel justified in writing that the country stood at “the summit of politeness”: greatness or civilization no longer needed to be sought at other courts or in Europe's classical heritage. Some therefore argued that the grand tour had outlasted its use ( Hurd 1764: 16 ; Newman 1997: 42–43 ). Many still deemed a personal inspection of the Continent necessary, however. The ensuing debate that took place in the press offers a chance to see the reasons of those favoring the tour, made explicit. In the first place, the different political and economic systems that were in operation in Britain's neighboring states must be examined by the nation's future leaders. If the aim was not always to cull inspiration from those other systems, then at least a visit would solidify future leaders’ understanding of why the British political system represented the best balance of powers possible between crown, nobility, and commoners. According to many commentators, the acquisition of a refined taste, indispensable for a gentleman, was also still best accomplished by an inspection of Italian painting and architecture ( Haynes 2006 ). Furthermore, while on tour, young men could extend their network with other British gentlemen. Ironically, small circles of expats were the place par excellence to get close to the people that mattered in one's home country.

Finally, certainly no less important was the worldliness, the savoir faire, that a Continental tour would bestow on a young man, and the social polish resulting from the interaction with different characters and cultures. Later on in the tourist's life, these qualities would prove useful both in politics and in business. In one of his fictional dialogues between John Locke and the Earl of Shaftesbury, Richard Hurd has Shaftesbury say: “we are polished [by this interaction] into a general and universal humanity” (1764: 33). In the eighteenth century, the British gentleman came to be distinguished by this very politeness. This was not merely an agreeable personal quality. As Lawrence Klein and Gerald Newman have argued, the struggle for politeness, and the role of the foreign journey in it, are to be explained as attempts to secure social status in a period when its traditional symbols, titles and land, were increasingly hard to obtain ( Klein 2002 ; Newman 1997: 42 ).

These various aims are summed up in the fourth earl of Chesterfield's advice to his son, Philip Stanhope, “on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman,” published by the son's widow in 1774. The earl's admonitions on how to travel were written earlier in the eighteenth century, as his son was about to follow in his footsteps as a tourist. First and foremost, the boy was tasked with learning the mores of polite society and distinguish taste from frivolity. Second, he must cultivate an interest in historical political systems, classical literature, and the arts (painting, sculpture, and architecture) and learn to distinguish them from “small wares”; while at the same time remaining aware that this store of knowledge was meant in the first place to provide subject matter for conversation. Thirdly, he should make useful acquaintances and spread his good name ( Stanhope 1932: 1409–1410, 1420 ; also Hurd 1764: 28–63 ).

Thus, since the making of a European tour for many formed a prerequisite for the politeness and thus the claim to power both of Britain as a nation and of the individual British gentleman, the grand tour formed the keystone of a well-rounded education ( Hume 1963: 127–128 ). Yet how does this relate to Dolan's sample of touring ladies? It turns out that from a total of eighteen women in his book, only five belonged to noble or knightly families. Nine others were part of the landed but untitled gentry. The remaining four came from farmers’ or bourgeois families. Now it is true that toward the end of the eighteenth century, the number of tourists from outside the nobility, male or female, increased. Although many of them copied the itinerary of the aristocratic tour, under their influence, the average tour transformed into a shorter trip, undertaken with ever smaller retinues, and easier on the pocket ( Towner 1985 ). As long as the aims of their journeys resembled those of the aristocratic adolescents mentioned earlier, however, we might reasonably still speak of a grand tour. This was the case, for instance, for writer and editor Mary Berry ( Adickes 1991: 113 ), and to some extent for the daughter of James Forbes, colonial administrator and artist, who joined her father on a European tour in order to apply a “last polish” to her education ( Duché 2017: 208 , quoting his Letters from France ). Yet Berry and Forbes (the latter not among Dolan's eighteenth-century ladies) were exceptions. And so, once the aims and shapes of the journeys under scrutiny as well as the identity of the travelers begin to shift, we may have to conclude we are dealing with a different phenomenon altogether.

A raft of aims may be identified as having motivated female travelers of the 1790s. They desired to improve their mental and physical health; they wanted to free themselves from some of the patriarchal constraints or disagreeable obligations they endured at the British court or with their own family (through the more liberal education women enjoyed abroad, for instance, or a more relaxed attitude toward extramarital relations—more below); to escape from the discrimination they experienced as a Catholic or a foreigner in Britain; to find artistic inspiration; to witness famous historical and classic literary locations firsthand (a knowledge of classical languages was not unusual for these women); or to improve their personal taste and thought ( Dolan 2002: esp. 5–10, 83–84 ). They may furthermore have wished to increase their social status at home by having traveled and acquired a trove of stories to tell (this seems to have motivated the Duchess of Northumberland, cited in Dolan 2002: 74–76 ; as well as Patteson 2003: 27 ); or to indulge in the contemplation of beautiful or sublime landscapes (typical are Radcliffe 1795 ; Wollstonecraft 1796 ). To these motivations, we might add a more general, often also more implicit eagerness to experience new cultures and societies; and the reduced cost of living in mainland Europe. Yet only two of these aims, seeing historic and literary locations, and improving one's taste and thought, overlap with the overt aims of the grand tour as discussed in contemporary literature.

As mentioned in the introduction, it has been suggested that female travelers, in particular, felt the need to defend their decision to travel for their male readers, and to prove their continued willingness to be a good British woman despite this decision. It is both methodologically and conceptually tricky, however, to separate “real” personal motivations from more ostentatious reasons. 2 When Helen Maria Williams called her political commentary of Revolutionary France “an affair of the heart” therefore, she did perhaps not do so (just) in order to pacify her male audience to her act of travel ( Gilroy 2000: 6 ). She was just as likely working to guard her authorial and political identity as sincere, passionate, and empathetic (compare Laurence Sterne's 1768 Sentimental Journey ); and to do so for her own sake as well as her audience's. Moreover, apologies formed a common trope in contemporary prefaces to first-person narratives generally. That is, such apologies were equally practiced by men and women. They tended to center, however, on the act of publishing rather than the act of travel. Mary Wollstonecraft, for instance, inscribed such an apology in her Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In it, she excused herself not for her gender or her journey but for the vanity of featuring as prominently in her own account as she did (1796, sign. A2). Yet other travelers featured prominently in their own accounts as well, and consequently offered similar expressions of modesty—men as well as women ( Geurts 2014: 27–49 ).

Rather than journeys that were already being made, needing legitimization in the accounts that were written about them, we should perhaps approach them as needing a good reason to begin with. In this period, what counted as a good reason for travelers from the middling sorts was often a financial one or one relating to (family) care, in contrast to the reasons needed by grand tourists. Mariana Starke traveled as a nurse, for instance; Wollstonecraft as a business representative; and Berry as a family manager. Such roles did not merely justify the expense of a journey and the neglect of duties at home. They operated on a more fundamental level: they linked the journey to life at home itself. The journey formed a direct extension of those same duties as a traveler performed at home: the form travelers’ domestic lives took, formed the reason for their journeys as well. Someone who was a nurse in Britain traveled, simply because her patient needed to travel. The same, it should be emphasized, applied to middling men, as well as to many mature travelers from any social stratum. One example is John Patteson, who was soon to preside over his parents’ cloth business but who first visited Germany and Italy with the purpose of establishing commercial contacts. Apart from having related aims, men like Patteson also shared their sense of urgency and opportunity with their female counterparts: they realized that they had received a chance to travel that might prove rare in their lives, and wanted to make the best possible use of it ( Patteson 2003: 23 ). We are left, then, with a wide variety of differently motivated journeys, and little reason as yet to believe that most of these motivations were specifically female, even where different from the grand tour's.

The tours of these women also took irregular shapes and forms when compared to the classic grand tour, both with respect to duration and destinations. Some travelers were practically living in France (Helen Maria Williams; Lady Mary Coke; Lady Elizabeth Webster, later Lady Holland), or touring around France and Italy for much of their life (Mary Berry; Ellis Cornelia Knight: Hornsby 2015 ). Some were traveling primarily to visit family abroad (Hester Piozzi in Italy). Mariana Starke went to France and Italy for as long as seven years to help improve the health of several close family members. Others made trips of a few months only, and to places that came relatively low on the grand tourist's list of priorities, such as the countries in the northwest of Europe (Ann Radcliffe; Mary Wollstonecraft). Many of these women also showed an interest in the natural spectacle of the Alps, whereas for the grand tourists who came before them, these mountains had typically been no more than an obstacle on their way to Italy, or at most the residence of Monsieur Rousseau (e.g., Boswell 1953: 196 ). Again, these observations concerning the duration and itinerary of women's journeys fit in with the more general shifts that John Towner has identified with respect to journeys made by British travelers in this period (1985), and so suggest another commonality between the genders.

There is one more important factor that separated female travelers from the grand tourists of their day. As mentioned, around the middle of the eighteenth century, serious doubts existed as to the need for a grand tour. In fact, the tour was perceived by many British to be a perilous undertaking to the future leaders of the nation. For one thing, a sojourn in France might turn an impressionable young man effeminate, while Italy might render him an atheist or even a Catholic ( Brown 1757: 34–36 ; Hume 1963: 131–134 ; Hurd 1764: 19–20 ; Newman 1997: 43 ; Patteson 2003: 246 ). There was always the lurking danger that a traveler might like what they found abroad better than they liked things at home ( Dolan 2002: 47 ). As a result, the question of what should count as the best “education and polish” for a gentleman was hotly debated. Was wisdom to be gained from books, or from the study of people and politics in action? And even then, was practical study in London sufficient, or should one's son draw comparisons between British and Continental cultures and political systems? Would a trip around western and southern Europe make sure that the boy in question “leaves some of his follies behind,” as Samuel Richardson's popular novel Sir Charles Grandison put it ( 1986: 45, 48 )? Certainly, travel could teach an “easy address” and “cure the mind [from] prejudices,” “but the experiment would be too dangerous for young men,” other authors claimed ( Goldsmith 1759: 442 ; Hurd 1764: 29–30 ). Even the 1781 account of Italy by John Moore, who accompanied the Duke of Hamilton on his grand tour, still bore a motto from Horace, surprisingly, urging readers to stay at home. 3

Strikingly, this debate focused entirely upon the “Young Nobleman” ( Hurd 1764: 25 ; also Martyn 1787 ). The establishment of girls in polite society, by contrast, did not follow this path. Aristocratic girls generally married about ten years younger than did their brothers, and their schooling was provided for at home and under the care of befriended families living on British soil ( Houlbrooke 1984: 63, 66, 176–178, 239 ). When ladies did travel for real, rather than in an armchair ( Dolan 2002: 12 ), it was usually after marriage. The women of whom we know that they traveled on their own account, rather than as part of someone's retinue, ranged in age from their teens to at least their sixties. An interesting result of this distinction to the boy-tourist is that women often traveled without any parents, tutors, or chaperons. Even though this does not mean that women of some means or status usually traveled on their own, since they were often accompanied by a husband or brother, it does mean that, depending on the form those relationships took, they had the opportunity to exploit the more sovereign or at least more mature position they occupied, as well as their own more mature experience. Furthermore, grand tourists were limited in their freedom of movement by their reliance on their parents’ financial remittances, which required securing parents’ or a tutor's approval of their itinerary, activities, and expenses ( Boswell 1953: 288 ; Stanhope 1932: 1412–1413 ). Now aristocratic women like Lady Mary Coke and Lady Webster/Holland could suffer a similar financial dependence on their families. Yet travelers from the gentry and middling sorts, such as Wollstonecraft, Williams, Radcliffe, and Berry, were often practically financially independent through their professions.

Marriage moreover created another important difference from grand tourists. Married women had an estate or a household, a husband, and often children and elderly parents to take care of and worry about while abroad—whether these dependents traveled with them or stayed at home. Contrariwise, the boy-tourist, typically fourteen to twenty-three years of age ( Towner 1985 ), only had to look after his own well-being and progress, even if these were ideologically bound up with the future state and (sexual) health of the British nation ( Eglin 2001: 87–90 ; Gilroy 2000 ; Turner 2001 ). Female travelers in their own right thus often had a greater independence, at the same time as carrying greater responsibilities, than the typical grand tourist of their day.

In sum, gender must be considered in relation to age, social station, and personal responsibilities and inclinations, if we are to understand the incentives of late-eighteenth-century travelers as well as the shapes their journeys took. One of the things that become clear if we do, is that many women's journeys formed part of a more general growth in bourgeois travel. As the following section will explore further, many of these middling travelers, whether men or women, were professional writers ( Towner 1985 ). Potential exceptions like Mary Berry aside, therefore, few ladies seem to have conceived of their travels as belonging to the category of the grand tour. Traveling women generally followed different itineraries and time patterns, and had different and more diverse concerns than covered by the term “grand tour.” Significantly, I have not come across anyone using the term herself. While clearly an important concept in contemporary British writing, 4 the grand tour cannot function as a default model for eighteenth-century Continental travel.

• Writing about Travel

The two remaining points this article aims to examine, the female journey as an escape from home with the female traveler as a relatively unbiased observer, and her special perceptiveness as a travel writer, inevitably relate to travelers’ choices concerning what to write and how to represent themselves. The sources used to argue these points have usually been published accounts. The very facts of writing and publishing therefore need reflecting on.

General economic prosperity in Britain, political and material improvements for travelers, and an increasing demand by readers, caused a flood of travel publications to enter the British book market from the 1763 Peace of Paris onward. 5 Yet in the forty years following, only about a dozen of these were written by women ( Turner 2001: 2, 127 ). Of the as yet unassessed numbers of women traveling, only a small proportion wrote; smaller probably than the proportion of men. Only think of the many small traders and craftspeople, political and religious refugees or pilgrims, traveling entertainers, farmhands and servants who never kept a diary or wrote letters home about their voyages. Others, though writing, must have reserved their travelogues for private use or for circulation among friends and family. And so, the dozen or so who published, likely formed a tiny minority of all traveling women ( Turner 2001: 132–133 ).

The accounts written expressly for publication have many features in common with those meant to remain in manuscript form, yet certain differences must also be noted. For one thing, it took a certain kind of woman in the right circumstances to publish anything in the first place, let alone to publish a text on secular subject matter (and not, for instance, a conversion narrative) in which she herself played the main part ( Huisman 2010 ). It comes as no surprise, then, that those women who published also exhibited a certain eagerness in their embrace of their life abroad, perhaps greater than the average male travel writer or the average female traveler.

Such issues have been addressed by several literary scholars ( Buzard 1993 ; Mellor 1993 ; Porter 1991 ; Van Den Abbeele 1992). One of the themes in which they have been particularly interested, is the political negotiating that women conducted for the sake of their writing. Contradicting the idea of female travel or travel writing as transgressive, they suggest that before around 1770, it was primarily publishing that had been highly inappropriate for women. This observation pertains especially to wealthy women, who clearly already had the means at their disposal before that time both to write and to travel. Before the stark rise in bourgeois travel of around 1800, ladies of leisure had already been touring Europe extensively ( Turner 2001: 3 ).

A second theme in literary studies has been the power publishing gave to women. Whereas Dolan mainly speaks of the power women searched through traveling, 6 Katherine Turner stresses their power through publishing. She shows how in the republic of letters even “occasional writers” could be “authoritative cultural and social commentator[s].” It “provided a public ‘voice’ for many otherwise silent citizens”: not only to its authors, but also to female readers at home. This power was acknowledged and strengthened by the influential literary reviews of the day ( Patteson 2003: 26–27 ; Piozzi 1967: 124 ; Turner 2001: 1, 11 ). Travel writing occupied a special position within this strategy. As gender scholar Sandra Adickes puts it, travelogues were a preferred medium for the female author because they “directed the attention of her readers to her view of the world, and her actions in it” ( Adickes 1991: 4 ). Publishing also gave women the power to present a more favorable version of their lives both to the world and to themselves: “Wollstonecraft takes a life scarcely bearable in reality and reconstructs it, creating for herself an existence that promises, even demands, a happy ending” ( Labbe 1992 ). Here it should be added that in private writing, too, it could be gratifying to record personal feats. Traveling the Alps on foot, Mary Berry, for instance, asserted that “the ascent I thought very little of … though extremely steep”. “I did not experience the least degree of fear even in those places where a slip would have been fatal” ( Berry 1865: 32, 131 ). Wollstonecraft proclaimed a similar supposedly unfeminine vigor and toughness for herself (1796: 10).

A final theme pertains to women's perceptive, original observations of life abroad: this is at the core of the first aspect of a potentially womanly curiosity, as introduced at the start of this article. Not just scholars but many contemporary authors, too, have mentioned this feature as peculiar to women. At times, this formed part of a rhetoric that censured female curiosity as aimless and idle, yet at other times it was framed more positively ( Broders 2017 ; Leask 2002: 203 , citing Lady Elizabeth Eastlake's 1845 review of two decades’ worth of women's travel writing; Musgrove 2009 , citing playwright Joanna Baillie's notion of sympathetic curiosity). Mary Berry theorized that while men are more suited to “solitary activities” at home, women, having “more lively … imaginations”, are made for exploration ((Berry quoted in) Dolan 2002: 50 ). Meanwhile, playwright and moral poet Hannah More agreed that women pay a greater attention to detail ( Turner 2001: 136–139 ).

These assertions of originality, however, served a rhetorical function in published travelogues. In their travel writing, women as much as men can be seen to repeat conventional judgments about other cultures (more below), and to cite the same guidebooks over and over again ( Eglin 2001: 77 ; Haynes 2006: 33 ; Piozzi 1967: 120 ). A famous case of such recycling of a limited repertoire of knowledge is presented by the process whereby Ann Radcliffe wrote most of her gothic romances: that is, before ever having set foot outside of Britain and based completely on other people's accounts of the regions she described. But the habit to reuse textual material and ideas was not necessarily always a conscious one. Hannah More felt she had to warn future travelers not to expect “a splendid romance” on their own journeys ( Dolan 2002: 53 )—probably both because such romances formed such a conventional and much-repeated plot and stylistic element in the published accounts these travelers might peruse, and because these travelers themselves would be inclined to (want to) act them out in real life. 7 Conventionality was thus a recognized element of travel writing ( Buzard 1993 ). Yet precisely for that reason, women's assertions of originality and precision became themselves a convention. And not just women's, but men's too. This further supports the point that we are dealing here not with actual forms of gendered observation or writing, but with rhetorical tropes ( Moore 1781: 459–461 ; Patteson 2003 ). 8 Writers and their publishers denounced their predecessors as misled or unoriginal, and in this way advertised their own work as authoritative and therefore worth buying. In sum, both men and women abounded in conventions; both at the same time equally eager to distance themselves from this practice.

• Observations and Escapes

Apart from an eye for detail, women have also been credited with an uncommonly open-minded attitude toward foreign cultures and a lack of nationalist bias ( Adickes 1991 ; Dolan 2002 ; Eglin 2001 ). Somewhat problematically, the explanations given for this attitude at the same time function as support for this claim. Firstly, women's domestic duties and their sense for domesticity are supposed to have made them more sympathetic to everyday foreign culture and to foreign women's lives. By focusing on domesticity, scholars imply that female travelers primarily displayed such open-minded attitudes with respect to the workaday lives of foreign women; in other words, that British women tended to center their observations around homely duties such as cleaning, shopping, and church-going. A second explanation that has been given is the fact that particular political innovations which these women desired for Britain seemed already to be a reality on the Continent and thus “gave credibility to personal aspiration” ( Adickes 1991: 4, 30, 91 ).

In the travelogues examined for this article, however, women look at non-domestic interactions as well as domestic ones, while men also include domestic scenes and details on the intimate social lives of the people they visit (e.g. Duché 2017: 210 ). Female travelers, moreover, varied wildly in their assessment of foreign mores. Some were more open, others more chauvinist. It is true that Mary Berry wished to “shake out of English ways, English whims, and English prejudices” ( Dolan 2002: 3 ). Similarly, Mary Wollstonecraft lamented that in England, women had no opportunity for the “solitude and reflection” needed for “impassioned thinking or calm investigation” (1992: 149). Yet often, British ways were praised, Continental ones condemned. I would like to briefly focus on one especially relevant aspect of travelers’ criticism here: foreign women's freedom.

Contrary to what John Eglin has suggested, British women did not universally celebrate Continental women as freer than British women, as less vulnerable to the loss of their honor, or as in other ways more blessed than themselves. Nor did British men uniformly condemn Continental women as licentious, as is also suggested in Eglin's work ( 2001: 95–96 ). Both Elizabeth Percy, duchess of Northumberland, and the earlier-mentioned Hannah More, formed a negative opinion about what they saw as the freer behavior of foreign women ( Dolan 2002: 10 ). Even if we were to assume that their critique betrays a form of envy, that is not quite the same as open-mindedness. Wollstonecraft, not entirely above crude judgment herself, found the Swedish “[s]carcely human in their appearance” (1796: 4). And Hester Piozzi, also no straightforward emancipator, thought the lower voices of an all-female musical ensemble “an odd unnatural thing enough,” apparently casting doubts on their proper femininity.

On the other hand, Piozzi observes that Italian women are “unrestrained,” “do their own way,” and are led by their “passion, appetite, [and] imagination,” and she frames these observations in remarkably neutral terms. She professes to prefer judging each culture by its own norms. In defense of Italian women, she even criticizes Catholic hypocrisy. Piozzi emphatically rejects prejudiced travel, envisaging a collective European development toward greater “openness and freedom” (1967: xxvi, 114–128, 408, 413). The Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth, too, defends Italian women, whose liberty, she writes, should not be seen as a “want of reserve” ( Dolan 2002: 15 ). And Helen Maria Williams and Mary Berry praise the courage of the Revolutionary women of Paris, who “[a]mong the victims of the tyrants … were particularly firm in the face of death.” They showed “the most remarkable instances of heroic courage, of incorruptible faith, and of patient self-devotion” ( Adickes 1991: 75, 125 ). Yet Wollstonecraft's opinion on the position of French women was more complex than Dolan has suggested (2002: 4), as it changed a number of times throughout her experiences in France and Scandinavia ( Wollstonecraft 1992 and 1796 ). Still, she commented highly optimistically on the freedom taken by young Norwegian women. She held this up as a model to be followed by other nations, writing that she did not “pretend … to sketch a national character; but merely to note the present state of morals and manners, as I trace the progress of the world's improvement” (1796: 215).

These observations by female travel writers were complemented by the positive judgments of male tourists about the liberties enjoyed by Italian women (examples of travelers from the middling ranks: Moore 1781: 459–461 ; Patteson 2003: 218–219 ). Whether women allowed their own preconceptions to be challenged to a larger extent than men can only be ascertained after a much more sizable comparison. Yet the above observations make clear that Dolan is mistaken when he writes that “[w]hereas male travel writers seemed more concerned with analysing the politics and topography of the countries they visited … ladies of the Grand Tour had other … interests” (2002: 283). Female tourists wrote about high politics as well as about cultures of everyday life (“morals,” domestic life), and so did male tourists. Women's judgments moreover varied with their individual political color, without being completely determined by this: there was always room for surprises, and travelers’ impressions often fluctuated over the course of their journeys (see also Turner 2001: 10 ).

Similarly, the thesis that women were motivated to escape the duties and restrictions they labored under while at home is supported by some travel accounts, but by no means all. Brian Dolan explains how Lady Webster/Holland used her travels to evade her husband's scrutiny, and how liberated Lady Mary Coke felt by her absence from the royal British court ( Dolan 2002: 11, 153 ). Yet grand tourist Philip Stanhope, too, was eager to escape his father's vigilance—considering that he apparently ignored his father's letters and acted as if they had never reached him ( Stanhope 1932: 1412 ). Father Chesterfield, incidentally, was too savvy not to note that “I can easily know whether you game or not without being told” (1413). The wish to be released from duties and restrictions at home thus inspired men and women, grand tourists and other travelers alike.

Yet it was not the only inspiration that existed. Although Wollstonecraft was clearly happier in Scandinavia than she was to be after her return to Dover, her project was not so much to escape British injustice to women as it was to reform Britain itself according to her humanist ideology of “fellow feeling” and civic responsibility. Significantly, the Scandinavian (social) landscape she encountered on her journey was no Eden either. Yet what it did, was to offer an inspiration that made her want to be “part of a mighty whole.” We encounter a similar cosmopolitan sentiment with Helen Maria Williams in Revolutionary France: “this was not a time in which the distinctions of country were remembered. It was the triumph of human kind … and it required but the common feelings of humanity to become in that moment a citizen of the world.” Wollstonecraft's (and Williams's) ideals were remote from the goal of the grand tour in their anti-aristocratic, anti-polite endeavor to ban both “false refinement” and “romantic wavering feelings.” Yet in the emphasis Wollstonecraft's ideals placed on a common humanity, they also contradicted the notion that these were specifically female virtues. Instead, she insisted that women should travel with a firm goal in mind and demonstrate “useful virtues” and “persevering passions”: the opposite from the pleasing behavior trained under the auspices of the polite grand tour ( Williams 1790: 14 ; Wollstonecraft 1796: 11, 15, 152, 262 ). Still, the fact that their journeys were un-grand-tour-like in these respects, does not make them escapist: both the grand tour and Williams's and Wollstonecraft's idealist-cosmopolitan journeys included the goal of creating some form of improvement at home, with Wollstonecraft and Williams arguably taking their duties in Britain more seriously even than the average grand tourist. Both sets of travelers traveled in order to create something, to invest in the future, which, as far as responses to challenges go, may even be called the very opposite of escapism.

The rather uncosmopolitan Radcliffe, incidentally, was looking to escape restrictions at home even less. Although she delighted in the “civil and religious liberty” that she found in the Low Countries, and was mildly curious after the Swiss Republic, that “beacon of liberty,” she nevertheless returned home contently after her plan to visit Switzerland fell through ( Adickes 1991: 89, 94 ).

There is one thing that did set some women apart from both grand tourists and other, mature or non-aristocratic, male travelers. Mary Berry confessed that in Florence “for the first time I began to feel my situation, and how entirely dependent I was on my own resources for my conduct, respectability, and success.” As mentioned before, her responsibilities rose beyond those of the grand tourist: “I soon found that I had to lead those who ought to have led me; that I must be … to my father a guide and monitor, instead of finding in him a tutor and protector” ( Adickes 1991: 112 ). Indeed, as Lady Webster/Holland observed in a similar vein, to tour around alone does in itself teach one to be self-reliant, also on a very practical plane. While the boy-tourist had his tutor to enlist carriers and other services for him, these traveling ladies made all their arrangements themselves ( Dolan 2002: 8, 137 ).

The accounts examined in this section cast doubt on a series of common claims in eighteenth-century travel research. Female travelers did not usually set out in order to escape patronage, although the reflections by Berry and Webster/Holland suggest that through their solitude and the exactions of the journey they could nevertheless obtain a new independence. What is more, in cases where women were traveling to escape, the surviving evidence suggests that they were escaping from a specific individual or social circle, rather than from patriarchic oppression generally. The women in the regions they visited were often considered to behave more freely than British women, it is true, but this does not mean they were always treated as positive examples. And although some women were inspired by foreign political systems, so were their male counterparts, such as Thomas Paine and William Godwin. When it comes to the ideal of common human rights, in particular, (male) Catholics, Calvinists, and other minorities undoubtedly found the same advantages in a life outside Britain as did women. Issues of class, ethnicity, religion, and political allegiance are at stake here, rather than gender. Yet while some women's travel writing demonstrates a belief in a “pan-European identity” ( Naddeo 2005 ), other women's writing exhibits a serious “recognition of cultural difference” ( Chard 2000 ), and a recognition of the dangers of wanderlust. After all, “Seeing the world! knowing the world! standing well in the world!” was utterly denounced by Hannah More ( Dolan 2002: 48 ), just as it had been by various male authors. Not surprisingly, More did not write this because of her womanhood, but because of her evangelic convictions.

Katherine Turner is correct about the non- and sometimes even anti-aristocratic character of much travel in the second half of the eighteenth century. Not all travel was grand tourism. When we do leave this narrow category and become aware of the different political and social alliances, we find a wide variety of motivations and experiences among traveling women. We also find greater similarities between female and male travelers than is often admitted for. What have been thought of as typically female styles of observing the foreign, including a professed precision and originality, are perhaps better characterized as conventional tropes in travel writing. Moreover, tourism was not a shared female response to restrictions at home. Some middling women saw Continental republics as the political system of the future, but other travelers were content to be able to replicate the educational tour or adopt the Continent as a convenient, safe, or exciting new home. Just like all traveling men cannot be identified with the grand tourist, all women are not political theorists. Yet traveling, writing, and publishing did have the capacity to stimulate greater independence and an awareness of different cultural possibilities—provided the protagonist was receptive to these.

Acknowledgments

With thanks to Janet Howarth, the anonymous reviewers, and the editors for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

Dolan's study covers a wide variety of authors and is representative of the central ideas that have shaped this field of research. Significantly, on its publication Ladies of the Grand Tour was heralded as “go[ing] a considerable way toward providing a long-needed study” of female travelers ( Wilton-Ely 2004 ).

It is also tricky to assume female readers of travelogues were more open-minded than male, and therefore did not need to be convinced of the legitimacy of female authors’ pursuits.

“Strenua nos exercet inertia; navibus atque / quadrigis petimus bene vivere. Quod petis, hic est.”

A basic search for “grand tour” in the Eighteenth-Century Collections Online yields more than a thousand mentions.

It is therefore hard to tell whether Dolan's statement that around 1790, travel became “increasingly available to women,” is warranted (2002: 7). His statement seems based on this increase in publications.

He nonetheless also mentions Starke's strategy of styling herself a specialist in mobile nursing, in order to gain authorial authority. Her advice was “closely followed” ( Dolan 2002: 131 ).

See my forthcoming article on this theme.

This trope also occasionally occurred in unpublished texts such as Horace Walpole's ( Naddeo 2005: 185 ).

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Broders , Simone . 2017 . “ The Fast and the Curious: The Role of Curiosity in the Gothic Heroine's ‘Grand Tour of the Mind’ .” English Studies 98 ( 8 ): 917 – 930 .

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Contributor Notes

Anna P.H. Geurts (Radboud University Nijmegen) obtained her DPhil degree in modern history at the University of Oxford and her PhD in the history of technology and material culture at Twente University. She specializes in travel and “ordinary” experiences of space and time. Former Research Associate National Railway Museum at the University of Sheffield, she is now preparing a monograph on Travel and Space in Nineteenth-Century Europe, published by Routledge. As a public historian, she publishes on language and material culture in various print and online periodicals, including Historian at Large. Email: [email protected] . ORCID: 0000-0002-2853-7622 .

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The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing

9 Books and Films Inspired by the Grand Tour

From mary shelley's 'frankenstein' to john hughes' 'national lampoon'.

Be it created on the Grand Tour, or inspired by the romance of Italy that the Grand Tour created, these 9 artistic works show how this idea of Romantic travel provided creative inspiration for centuries – and continues to inspire us in the present day.

1. Francis Bacon's 'Of Travel', 1625

When the notable statesman Francis Bacon went on his 3-year journey across Europe, little did he know that the travel advice he had for his 17th-century readers would be just as valuable to those of the 21st century. Francis Bacon’s sound advice in his writings "Of Travel" paved the way for the young men and women who set out on their Grand Tours, and in the process he also became a pioneer in travel writing.

Bacon’s advice became a pocket guidebook of sorts, which still resonates today. Some of his travel tips were:

- Keep a travel journal, but not at the expense of experience - Get to know a local and have them show you around - Travel with people you get along with - See the sights and rarities of your destination, like monuments & churches - Never forget your trip. But never show off either when you’re home again.

2. Edward Gibbon's 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', 1776

At the ripe age of 26, after already publishing his first work Essays on the Study of Literature , Edward Gibbon embarked on the European journey of Enlightenment which had become a rite of passage for any wealthy, educated, young British man. Gibbon went on to complete other literary works, but the one work which gave him fame throughout centuries is the one that would take over a decade to complete – The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: 1776 - 1788 .

Gibbon’s book was inspired by the surrounding temple-lined Roman Forum , ancient cobblestones where Julius Caesar once ruled, and the early legends of Romulus and Remus , the wolf-raised founders of Rome. The 3-volume book which takes you on a journey from Augustus to Constantinople is the product of a European tour of a lifetime. This work set Gibbon apart and sealed his position as a legendary writer of the Grand Tour.

3. Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein', 1816

It’s a common anecdote that Mary Shelley conceived of Frankenstein (also known as The Modern Prometheus) to win a bet while traveling through Europe on a Grand Tour of sorts with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.

Shelley’s subtle references to her travels can be found throughout the novel. For example, Shelley decided to have Frankenstein (who in actual fact is the doctor, not the monster) be born in Naples, Italy; raised in Geneva, Switzerland and travel around to London, Paris and throughout Europe. An interesting note of the times considering the railways hadn’t yet become “tourist-friendly”.

4. Johann Wolfgang Goethe's 'Italian Journey', 1816

It’s impossible to speak about literature inspired by the Grand Tour and not speak about one of the most well-known writers from the Grand Tour – J.W. Goethe . Italian Journey is perfectly titled as it takes us through Goethe’s many adventures in quite a vivid fashion since the book is actually based on Goethe’s travel diaries.

Goethe often boasted of his life-altering experiences during the Grand Tour, and was one of the many European travelers who seemed to have had an epiphany during his journey through art, culture and sun. A travel itinerary of sorts, the Italian Journey takes you through Verona, Rome, Naples, Sicily and more – seeing Italy through the eyes of an enthusiast.

5. Mark Twain's 'The Innocents Abroad', 1869

Mark Twain was one of the last literary greats to follow in the footsteps of the Grand Tour adventure-seekers. His trip to Europe by boat in 1867 is often referred to as the “Great Pleasure Excursion” and it’s all chronicled in the travel book he called The Innocents Abroad , which was to become one of the most prominent pieces of travel literature in American history. Twain covered his journey from the Paris Exhibition 1867, to Rome, all the way to the Holy Land.

Twain aimed to reach out to a wider audience, and this bestselling chronicle of an American’s perspective of Europe did just that. And has continued to do so for over a century.

6. 'Room with a View', directed by James Ivory, 1985

Lucy Honeychurch, played by Helena Bonham Carter, and her tutor Charlotte Bartlett, played by Maggie Smith, spend some formative time in Florence in an Italian pensione where Lucy meets George Emerson, played by Julian Sands. George seems to have been freed of his restrictive expectations, finding both himself, love and Lucy in Italy. It’s a film centering on culture, passion and, of course… the Arno River, Florence. It's perspective on Italy owes a lot to the culture of the Grand Tour.

7. 'National Lampoon’s European Vacation', directed by Amy Heckerling, 1985

John Hughes may have been famous for capturing the true essence of the coming-of-age teenage years, but he clearly applied the same approach to capturing the essence of the Grand Tour in the comedy, National Lampoon’s European Vacation , starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo. The film had all the makings of a “modern Grand Tour of Europe” with multiple city stops in London, Paris, a West German village, Rome, and many of the monuments you may have seen in an 18th century Grand Tour manual.

8. 'Enchanted April', directed by Mike Newell, 1991

The name of this film says it all. Inspired by the the idea of Italian paradise inherent in the Grand Tour, the story is about 4 London women who embark on a “soul searching” journey to Italy. They rent an Italian castle, leave their former lives, and get away from it all for a bit of enlightenment à la Grand Tour.

9. 'A Month at the Lake', directed by John Irvin, 1995

One of the highlights of the Grand Tour was sex and romance. And that’s exactly what you get from this romantic comedy with a cast including Uma Thurman, Vanessa Redgrave and Alessandro Gassman. One month at Lake Como is more than enough to find love and a sense of freedom – both famous products of Italy.

Learn more about The Grand Tour:

- How Tourism Hasn’t Changed Since The Grand Tour - The Art That Made Grand Tourists Flock to Italy - The Grand Tour of Italy

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