Epoch Of The Grand Tour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Epoch Of The Grand Tour - Essay Example Typically, the Grand Tour included visiting the most famous cities of France, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands with Calais, Paris, Turin, Venice, Naples, Florence, and Rome being the primary goals. The Grand Tourist would journey from city to city and typically spend weeks in smaller cities and some months in each of the three key cities. Travel was not easy in the eighteenth century. The most popular crossing of the English Channel was made from Dover to Calais, France. A trip from Dover across the Channel to Calais and onto Paris routinely took three days. The crossing of the Channel was not a trouble-free one. There were hazards of seasickness, illness, and even shipwreck. The journey from France to Italy could be done by the  sea  where the tourist faced the danger of pirates, or by land by sedan chair over the Alps, where constricted passes made travel an expedition in terror. If the tourist chose to sail to Italy rather than scale the Alps, he would first journey to the south of France. The English were delighted by the warm weather, sunshine and the fields of lavender, calling Provence â€Å"almost  Paradise†. To sail across the Gulf of Genoa, a tourist engaged a fishing boat in Marseilles or Nice. The Gulf of Genoa was notorious for its sudden squalls. The hazard of storm and shipwreck or attack by pirates hovered, but it could be much faster than the long laborious trek through the mountains, and the alpine passes were closed in the winter. Many Grand Tourists chose to either begin or end their tour in Holland. The Dutch were the kings of trade in the 18th century, and passage home to England could be booked on one of their superb  merchants ships (Buzard 42).... However, the idea of traveling for the sake of learning and education - the key idea underlying the Grand Tour - was a relatively new one even in the 18th century (Brodsky-Porges 173). Although representatives of other European nations adopted the same belief that genuine knowledge comes exclusively from the external senses, the Grand Tour is essentially a British invention: at that time Great Britain was the wealthiest country in the world with extremely numerous upper class representatives of which had both the time and the wealth to spend years traveling around the world. As a result, young English elites often spent from several months to several years traveling around Europe in an effort to see the cultural artifacts of antiquity and the Renaissance, learn languages, architecture, geography, culture, and visit other aristocratic societies of Europe (Brodsky-Porges 173-174). Typically, the Grand Tour included visiting the most famous cities of France, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands with Calais, Paris, Turin, Venice, Naples, Florence, and Rome being the primary goals. The Grand Tourist would journey from city to city and typically spend weeks in smaller cities and some months in each of the three key cities. Travel was not easy in the eighteenth century. The most popular crossing of the English Channel was made from Dover to Calais, France. A trip from Dover across the Channel to Calais and onto Paris routinely took three days. The crossing of the Channel was not a trouble-free one. There were hazards of seasickness, illness, and even shipwreck. The journey from France to Italy could be done by sea' where the