Between the 17th and the 19th century, it was a custom for wealthy Europeans to take a trip around Europe, usually in their early 20s. This trip, known as the Grand Tour, was a popular rite of passage during which travelers studied the culture and history of Europe, especially the heritage of classical antiquity and the Renaissance. Thanks to the Grand Tour, the wealthy young men were also able to see specific works of art and hear certain types of music, in an era in which doing so without traveling was almost impossible. During their trip, the travelers were often accompanied by a cicerone, a knowledgeable guide or tutor. The Grand Tour was popular between around 1660 and 1840, and it marked the birth of modern tourism. In fact, the words tourism and tourist came from the Grand Tour.
The Grand Tour has its origin in the trips that pilgrims and members of the clergy took to visit Rome, especially during the Jubilee. In 1611, the writer Thomas Coryat published a travelogue of his travels through France, Italy, Germany, and other European countries, most of which he did on foot. His book influenced early travelers, but the journeys of English noble Thomas Howard were much more significant. He set a precedent by taking an extensive trip through Italy between 1613 and 1614 with the help of architect Inigo Jones, who acted as his guide.
These early travels resulted in the introduction of some aspects of foreign, especially Italian, culture in other countries. For example, Coryat is credited with introducing forks and umbrellas, which were Italian customs, to England. One of the earliest nobles to take the Grand Tour was a Polish prince who later became King of Poland Władysław IV Vasa. In 1624, he traveled around Europe, and when he returned home he introduced Italian opera to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
However, it was still difficult to travel during this time due to the many conflicts around Europe. Larger numbers of tourists began to travel after 1648, when the Peace of Westphalia and the Peace of Münster ended the wars. The first recorded use of the term Grand Tour was by Catholic priest Richard Lassels, who described his travels through Italy in a book published posthumously in 1670, and suggested that young nobles take the Grand Tour to understand the culture, history, and politics of Europe.
In the next few decades, the Grand Tour became a staple of the education of young wealthy men, especially from the British nobility, but also from other Protestant Northern European countries. By the early 18th century, taking the tour was considered essential, and a necessary journey for young artists to understand painting and sculpture techniques. The Grand Tour also became a status symbol, and tourists often returned home with crates full of books, artworks, scientific instruments, and more, which they later displayed with pride in libraries and galleries sometimes built just to show what the nobles had gathered during the trip.
A painting from around 1760 by Nathaniel Dance-Holland depicting English tourists during their Grand Tour.
The tour was almost exclusively reserved for men, and the women who were able to travel often did so as wifes or servants. However, there were also a few cases of noblewomen who led their own tours, such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Mary Wollstonecraft in the 18th century. During the final decades of the Grand Tour, as transportation became cheaper, the journey became available to more middle-class families, including women. During this time, even some travelers from North and South America were able to take the tour.
While the itinerary of the Grand Tour was not the same for everyone, the journeys often followed a similar path. The route for British tourists usually began from Dover, England, and crossed the English Channel to either Ostend in Belgium, or Calais or Le Havre in France. After arriving in continental Europe, nobles would acquire a carriage, or continue their travel by boat up the Seine to Paris. Paris was one of the most common destinations for tourists, and they would take lessons in French, dancing, fencing, and horse riding. Travelers would then go towards Switzerland, going up the Rhine to Basel, and often stopping in cities like Lausanne and Geneva.
From there, tourists had to take a difficult crossing of the Alps, which often required dismantling the carriage and reassembling it later, with servants carrying the luggage on foot. After arriving in Italy, tourists would stop in Turin and Milan, before spending a few months in Florence. Florence hosted a large English community at the time, and travelers were able to see many artistic and architectural masterpieces of the Renaissance. After Florence, tourists visited many other locations in Italy, such as Pisa, Padua, Venice, and Bologna.
The travelers then moved to Rome, where they would study the ancient ruins and the countless masterpieces of art and architecture from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque era. Catholic travelers also paid a visit to the Vatican. Many then continued south to Naples, to study local music and culture, and from there they would visit the ruins of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Paestum, and some would also attempt an ascent of Mount Vesuvius. In the later years of the Grand Tour, some travelers also visited Sicily to see its archaeological sites, Mount Etna, and study Baroque architecture. Some even continued to Malta, or even Greece, but Naples and the surrounding area were usually the end of the trip.
Returning north, many moved to German-speaking countries, visiting cities like Innsbruck and Vienna in Austria, and Dresden, Potsdam, and Berlin in Germany, with some spending some time studying at the universities of Ingolstadt or Heidelberg. From there, travelers then would go to the Netherlands and Flanders, before crossing the English Channel to return home.
Goethe in the Roman Campagna, a 1787 painting by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein.
Despite its popularity, the Grand Tour also had its critics. Many derided its lack of adventure and the monotonous itinerary, with some arguing that the journey reinforced old stereotypes and prejudices about national characteristics. The trip was also criticized for depicting a contrast between the supposedly educated and wealthy Northern Europe, and Southern Europe, often described as a place of backwardness and stuck in the past. The journey also enriched many art dealers, who would acquire art pieces and souvenirs that they would later sell to tourists at exorbitant prices.
The Grand Tour began to decline in the early 19th century, and tourism changed with the advent of steam-powered transportation, which was cheap, safe, and open to everyone. By the 1840s, rail transport started to make traveling around Europe much easier and, with the decline in interest in classical culture, the tradition of the Grand Tour ended, replaced by leisure traveling in the mid 19th century.
Some aspects of the Grand Tour have survived to this day, like the tradition in English-speaking and Northern European countries to take a gap year from studies to travel, or the custom for some North Americans to do a long journey across various European cities. More similar to the traditional Grand Tour is traveling with European rail passes that allow people to move across the continent in a flexible and cheap way. In fact, I did this myself, traveling for two months across Europe with a rail pass, and you can read about this journey here.