There was a time in Venice when children bathed in the canal and artists exclusively enjoyed its architecture.
Young British students - aristocrats or wealthy -, artists or scientists of the 18th century embarked on what came to be called the Grand Tour, which could last months or years . Some did it with the intention of completing their education, others in search of knowledge and adventure.
Students fresh out of Oxford, Cambridge... were escorted by a clergyman, a retired military man, a family acquaintance... who acted as counselor, administrator, educator and lookout. Travel notebooks to write down your experiences and learning, didactic books, clothing for all occasions, sheets and towels, the iron chest to store money and safe-conducts, and a small weapon, just in case, filled their trunks.
Many artists joined this ritual, capturing his traveling anecdotes in his writings. Such was the case of the marriage of Percy and Mary Shelley, author of the controversial Frankenstein, and the poet John Keats, who looked to the Roman climate and beauty for a cure for his tuberculosis. The building where the young poet lived and died (at the age of 25), at number 26 on the steps of the Plaza de España, today houses a museum in honor of the romantic English poets, including Lord Byron and the Shelley couple.
The secret Keats-Shelley House museum is located in a not-so-secret location.
ROME, BEGINNING AND END OF THE JOURNEY
Influenced by the fictional literature of Laurence Sterne in Sentimental Journey, Goethe's Journey to Italy and by the father of archeology and art history, Joham Joachim Winckelmann, the future leaders of the British Empire found in Italy, especially in Rome, the compendium of their cultural ambitions just by walking through those streets where ruins, Renaissance, Baroque and everyday life coexist genuinely.
An unavoidable visit for young people with artistic aspirations was Rome, following the criteria according to which it was necessary to observe, discover, live... In other words, the city that gave rise to so much beauty, supposed the pinnacle of scholarly education.
Joshua Reynolds sums it up nicely in his 1778 book Fifteen Discourses: “Raphael did not study in an Academy, but in all of Rome. The works of Michelangelo, especially, were the best school for him”.
Raphael's school was the works of Michelangelo in Rome.
Letters of recommendation for artists were a must. Thus it was easier for the young man to enter Italian society and learn first-hand the secrets of art. There were even those who commissioned these artists their portraits with a background of ruins, monuments... that testified to their Italian stay.
A meeting place for those first tourists was the Café Greco on Via Di Condotti, which during its 250 years He has served coffee to people of the category of Casanova, Andersen -who lived upstairs-, Goethe, Stendhal... Also to the convoy of Polish dignitaries – from the father of Polish poetry, Adam Mickiewic, to Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewiz – and to the many chatterboxes who, although before they soaked the pen in the inkwell, today they type on the laptop. All of them have made their literary first steps in the legendary café.
Many letters have come together at the Café Greco on Via Di Condotti.
POMPEII, NEWLY DISCOVERED
The visit to Naples was cosmopolitan and fun. The largest city in Italy at that time divided into states, the royal Naples, beautiful and flourishing, under the protection or helplessness of Vesuvius. So much so that the great gift for those who toured the Italian peninsula as part of their training was Naples. There, his guardian evaporated to let the pupil enjoy his freedom.
The recent discovery, in the mid-eighteenth century, of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the cities buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, and the excavations promoted by the reigning Charles VII of Naples, III of Spain, were a reason for pilgrimage to the components of the Grand Tour who returned home with trunks full of frescoes, mosaics and stones with which to fill London's antique shops and private shelves.
The Pompeii forum with the looming Vesuvius in the background.
THE SENSUALITY OF TUSCANY
Siena, from whose land the homonymous ocher pigment used in artistic painting is extracted since time immemorial, it was an obligatory destination for that expedition in search of art. Many of them made their visit coincide with the legendary horse race of El Palio.
Between Siena and Florence, in full Tuscan exuberance, rise the towers of San Gimignano. The Etruscan enclave –perfect stopover and inn on the pilgrimage to Rome– hosted illustrious people such as Dante Alighieri (when he was ambassador of the Guelfa League in Tuscany) and was, together with Florence and Siena, an unavoidable destination for the Grand Tour.
Even 15 of the 72 towers can be seen in the distance, pioneers of skyscrapers, which were built by wealthy families in the 13th century, competed in height as a symbol of power.
According to UNESCO, in Florence is home to the largest concentration of internationally famous art in the world. More than one component of the Grand Tour suffered or savored the syndrome that Stendhal made fashionable in his book Naples and Florence: Journey from Milan to Reggio, while contemplating the Basilica of the Holy Cross, when beauty hurts, after the accumulation of artistic enjoyment that Florence entails.
Florence hurts from so much beauty.
THE VENETO, NATURE AND ART
The beautiful, unique, incomparable Venice, the icing on the british pilgrimage that sought to get lost among its canals admiring that enormous mansalva of architectural styles well described by John Ruskin in his book Stones of Venice of 1853.
contemplate the works by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and acquire some vedute (painting) on the urban views of Giovanni Antonio Canal, Canaletto, so admired by the components of the Grand Tour that they managed to transfer him to Great Britain in 1746 where he settled for nine years.
The city of love was immortalized by Shakespeare thanks to the impossible love of Julieta Capuleti and Romeo Montague. An unfortunate story that Luigi del Porte had written in the 16th century, before it reached the pen of the English playwright. The young English aristocracy traveled to the city attracted by the famous romance.
John Ruskin, in his book Verona and Other Readings (1857), speaks of the Veneto city as his favorite place in Italy, advising his friends and readers to dedicate time and affection to him. According to him, its location on the banks of the Adige river, the Gothic churches, the spectacular medieval tombs of the noble family of the Scaligeri, the Roman Amphitheater of the Arena and the Roman Forum (today Herbs Square) represent a real treasure.
Venice, to this day, continues to attract with its romanticism.
MILAN, TO THE LAST...
Illustrious figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Alessandro and Petro Verri, regulars at the Greco literary café and founders of the influential newspaper II Caffè, Giuseppe Verdi and many others, they lived and created in the hospitable and open-minded city of 18th century Milan, when the Anglo-Saxon islanders visited her for being up to date, especially when it came to good dress.
In this city the first foci of Italian nationalism were forged and, although later Florence and then Rome were the capitals of the new state, Milan has always been considered the economic capital of Italy and world capital of fashion.
Milan exudes style and fashion from all sides.
TURIN, THE PIEDMONT CAPITAL
After a long and sometimes painful and cold journey through the Alps, Turin appeared, and with it the warmth and sun of Italy that they so longed to see. Wide avenues, cafes, street life. There they would learn to dance, to dress, to live in society, to behave like a gentleman.
The opera El Nuevo Teatro Regio would be one more incentive, waiting for them on the other side of the Alps.
The cafes were and still are the vital artery of Turin governed by those delicious ambiguous located between the many arcades of the city, where the apericena (snack and dinner) is served as well as a Bicerin, the typical traditional drink of Turin, based on coffee, chocolate and cream.
Turin's architecture hides delicious cafes where you can enjoy its hectic social life.
BACK HOME
Scottish surgeon and writer Tobias Smollett introduced the English to the region of Liguria in his Travel Notebooks for France and Italy.
The splendid Ligurian nature of sea and mountains – together with its legendary culture and traditions – was a source of inspiration for many, including D.H Lawrence, author of Lady Chatterly's Lover. However, Tobias Smollett chose to live and die in the port city of Livorno, declared a free port since the Medici. There some of the young aristocrats would embark on their way home, bringing with them crates full of silks, marbles, books and works of art.
Livorno, which was famous for being a cosmopolitan city in which diverse communities coexisted peacefully, it became the preferred point of arrival for American travelers.
In Livorno used to end the great route through Italy.