Beyond the Grand Tour. Northern metropolises and early modern travel behaviour (original) (raw)
Related papers
Beyond the Grand Tour - An introduction
An introduction to Sweet R., Verhoeven G. & Goldsmith S. (eds.), Beyond the Grand Tour. Northern Metropolises and Early Modern Travel Behaviour (Abingdon: Routledge 2017)
Annals of Tourism Research
Foreshadowing Tourism aims to hone or even to upset our understanding of the genesis of tourism. It has long been assumed that nineteenth-century tourism was rooted in the early modern Grand Tour. However, Netherlandish travel diaries, along with some literature from England, Germany, and France, evidence a missing link in this regard. The late seventeenth century witnessed the coming of divertissante somertogjes (pleasurable summer trips) that were in fact poles apart from a classic Grand Tour. By scrutinizing modern features of this novel form of travel (such as its brief and seasonal timing, and the fact that its main motivations were leisure and cultural interests) and more obsolete traits (such as the lack of recurrence or the relatively exclusivity of such touring parties) I seek to restore these speelreysjes (pleasure trips) to their rightful place within the genealogy of travel and tourism. I will also evaluate the potential effects of a transport (r)evolution, cultural development, and a rise in living standards on early modern travel behavior.
Cultural Experiences in Florence and Italy: The Grand Tour Narrative in the 21st Century
SocietàMutamentoPolitica, 2020
In this article I explore various current myths that lead foreigners, especially North Europeans and North Americans, to choose to visit/live in Florence or Tuscany for a while or forever. Is it possible to discern any shared, collective representations? If so, how do such myths fit into the contemporary everyday life of the city? Can we identify a pathway from the aesthetic quest for “authentic” Italian life to cultural encounters with Italians in the flesh? My hypothesis is that one of the leitmotifs of foreigners’ experiences is a romantic, and to a lesser degree, intellectual approach towards “Florence without Florentines”. If so, there is nothing new “Under the Tuscan Sun”: the Grand Tour narrative is alive and kicking. Contemporary experiences of Florence and Tuscany continue to be shaped by the social imaginary inherited from the early nineteenth century. Travellers and sojourners come to Florence with a set of expectations shaped through filmic and literary representations and see what they expect to see, not least because the Italians are equally complicit in performing their part in this ritualised experience.
TOWARDS A HISTORY OF TOURISM: NAPLES AND SORRENTO (XIX CENTURY
Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 1995
Both geographical and historical perspectives are necessary to analyze the phenomenon of tourism. This is illustrated by a review of pre modern tourism, and the fascination for ‘the South’, the most explicit expression of what was the Grand Tour. However, a case study of Naples and Sorrento reveals that the Grand Tour changed in its social construction over time, with important implications for the types of visitors attracted, their activity patterns and, consequently, intra-regional distributions of tourism.
2019
Mobility and travel have always been key characteristics of human societies, having various cultural, social and religious aims and purposes. Travels shaped religions and societies and were a way for people to understand themselves, this world, and the transcendent. This book analyses travelling in its social context in ancient and medieval societies. Why did people travel, how did they travel, and what kind of communal networks and negotiations were inherent in their travels? Travel was not only the privilege of the wealthy or the male, but people from all social groups, genders, and physical abilities travelled. Their reasons to travel varied from profane to sacred, but often these two were intermingled in the reasons for travelling. The chapters cover a long chronology from Antiquity to the continuities of travel and pilgrimage as a phenomenon of vital importance. Jenni Kuuliala is a university researcher at Tampere University, Finland. Her research interests include hagiography, pilgrimage, and the social history of medicine in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Jussi Rantala is a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University, Finland. His research concentrates on historiography, identity, and power in Classical Antiquity, particularly in the Roman Empire.