All the wonders, perils and bawdy pleasures of Europe: How “travail” became “travel”. A travelogue I did last month at Google Earth, a bit of fun with revealing glimpses of modern tourism.

Seeing the world, visiting the cradles of civilisation and quite possibly having it off with a succession of foreign trollops was the thing to do for a young Englishman of means in the late 1700s and early 18s. College life was all but drained of fun and Daddy wasn’t going to loosen his grip on the family funds till one was – what do they call it, “settled down”? – so one might as well see how the other half of the world gets on and have a bit of lusty hilarity at their expense, chalking it all up to “coming of age”, eh wot?

Making the rounds of prominent cities in France, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands in those “enlightened times” became known as the Grand Tour, and that in turn gave us the word “tourist”. Young British elites often spent two to four years travelling on the continent in an effort to broaden their horizons and learn about language, architecture, geography and culture and, yes, pursuing quite a lot of scandalous pleasure too.
The term “Grand Tour” was introduced by Richard Lessels in his 1670 book “Voyage to Italy”, and the best known of the myriad Britons it drew was James Boswell, who naturally kept an elaborate journal, years before he started writing down everything Samuel Johnson said.

Travel was, in its finer sense, another manifestation of the Enlightenment’s cosmopolitanism and interest in new vistas. The great-aunt of Thomas Coke wrote to him upon his completion of school: “Sir, I understand you have left Eton and probably intend to go to one of those Schools of Vice, the Universities. If, however, you choose to travel I will give you £500 [about $12,500] per annum.” Coke was no fool and went on the Grand Tour, along with many others. In one peak year alone, 40,000 Englishmen were travelling in Europe.
Then there was the infamous spin put on the whole adventure by Mark Twain, who in 1867 was among the first Americans sampling the Grand Tour: “The Gentle Reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become, until he goes abroad,” he wrote in “The Innocents Abroad”. “I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the Gentle Reader has not been abroad, and therefore is not already a consummate ass.”
Ass in hand, off we go …

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DOVER

The most common crossing of the English Channel to commence the Grand Tour was made from Dover to Calais — the route of the Channel Tunnel today. If the tourist started from London, it was a day-long drive to Dover with stops every eight to 10 miles to exchange the horses. The coach travelled at a speed of about eight to 10 miles per hour.
At Dover it would be hoisted onto a ship that must wait for a fair wind in the correct direction to make the passage to a European port, usually Calais. The trip might take only three hours with a favourable wind, but waiting a week for the wind to blow in the proper direction was not uncommon. The crossing of the Channel was not an easy one. There were risks of seasickness, illness and even shipwreck. But what fun, eh?

CALAIS
After an inspection and obtaining a passport, the travellers could lease horses and the coach could follow the reasonably good post road to Paris, with sightseeing stops along the way. From Calais to Paris is 183 miles, which would have involved seven stops for supper on the road and a week-long journey.
Carrying letters of reference and introduction, the young nobility who made these pioneering jaunts often used their own horse-drawn coaches to avoid the risk of renting a carriage that was infested with fleas or simply in poor repair, but regardless, the route was full of excitement, if not outright danger.
The carriage might be a chaise, guided by a postillion riding one of the lead horses, or a coach, controlled by a coachman who sat on the box at the front of the carriage and drove the team with reins. Then there were the carrosse, like the English stagecoach, with room for up to six passengers, and the coche, which carried 16 passengers and afforded the opportunity to engage in interesting conversation and interaction with the local people of France. Most of these means of transport often had a leather roof that could be let down in good weather like a convertible roof, and the interior was richly upholstered and the seats padded with horsehair with an overlay of goose down. The interior might include seats that folded down into a travel bed and compartments for guns, liquor, a telescope and maps.

BAUVAIS

A complement of servants for a nobleman who intended to spend one to four years travelling through Europe on the Grand Tour would include two coachmen and a pair of grooms for each carriage, armed outriders and a tutor/guide at the least. Other possible servants might include a valet and a secretary.
Since the trip’s purpose was educational, young Englishmen in particular were usually accompanied by a tutor who ensured that his charges spent time looking at museum collections of natural history and antiquities. But tutors were not able to stop young men from also pursuing wine, women and song.

CHANTILLY

Grand Tourists wouldn’t carry much money due to the risk of highway robbers, so letters of credit from their London banks were presented at the major cities. Since many of the travellers spent so much money abroad, the English politicians complained loudly about the institution of the Grand Tour.
As one observer recounted: “The French usually travel to save money, so that they sometimes leave the places where they sojourn worse off than they found them. The English, on the other hand, come over with plenty of cash, plenty of gear, and servants to wait on them. They throw their money about like lords.”

VERSAILLES

Despite Thomas Nugent’s 1743 description of the French – “fiery, impatient, inconstant and of restless disposition. Extremely talkative, especially those of the female sex. Swearing and cursing are customary” –
Paris was definitely the most popular city on the Grand Tour, since French was the most common second language of the British elite, the roads to Paris were excellent and the Brits regarded the City of Light as one fiendishly fascinating place.

Upon arrival, they would usually rent an apartment for several weeks or months, then make day trips to the countryside and Versailles. Visiting French and Italian royalty and British envoys was popular, and the homes of envoys were often utilised as hotels and food pantries, much to their chagrin. In Paris, all outward traces of the backward Briton were erased as he was fitted for a totally French wardrobe. Dressed like a Frenchman, he was now ready to be introduced to French society.

LYON

After his introduction in France, the tourist went on to Dijon, Lyon and finally Marseille.
The British tended to find French food too highly seasoned, insubstantial and lacking meat, but they enjoyed shopping for fashionable French clothes and attended the opera and theatre. As for the hazards of the road, one travel guide offered cautioned: “To Englishman, France seems fetid and vile, without being magnificent or fragrant. The French are notorious for their mean attitude and arrogant mannerisms.

“The French Revolution has caused a financial chaos. Now many French have taken to forging money. Therefore, the British must be careful in whom they trust with financial matters while travelling through France. France’s national turmoil makes the tourists never free from the threat of violence.”

MONTPELIER

The Grand Tour, an observer of the day noted, “fulfilled a major social need, namely the necessity of finding young men – who were not obliged to work and for whom work would often be a derogation – something to do between school and the inheritance of family wealth. It allowed the young to sow their wild oats abroad and it kept them out of trouble, including disputes with their family, at home.”

GRINDEWALD

After a long stay in Paris that might have involved lessons in fencing, etiquette and a visit to the French court, the tourist had to decide whether to move on to Switzerland or Italy. If the former, the “word to the wise” of the day went something like this: “The wild chaotic and terrible beauty of Alpine scenery makes little appeal to the eye, trained as it is to appreciate the nice regularities of controlled forms, more responsive as it is to the pastoral scene than the reckless grandeur of the wilderness.

“The journey over the Alps is very dangerous, but once the tourist arrives in Switzerland there are few, but very intriguing and historical sites to see. Switzerland is known for great accommodations in the major cities, specifically the Inn on the Col Di Tanda, and the inns in Chamoix, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. But outside these cities, it is difficult to find comfortable lodging.”

FERNEY

Geneva was considered a destination of slight respite from the trials and tribulations of being a Grand Tour road warrior. The Swiss city, wrote one tourist, “does offer an escape from the overwhelming European Roman Catholic presence [and] has a very pleasant and picturesque society, yet it is rumoured to close its city gates at 5pm.

“The largest and richest city in Switzerland, Basel, is the home of the famous philosopher Rousseau. Another famous philosopher, author Voltaire also resides in Switzerland, but does not like to be bothered, in Ferney. Ferney is an essential city for those persons travelling on the Grand Tour.”

MOUNT CENIS PASS

If not the chilly jump from France to Switzerland, on to Italy instead? But a dire dilemma: via the Alps or by crossing the Gulf of Genoa?
There were no coach roads through the Alps until the end of the 18th century, so to cross, the entire coach had to be disassembled and hauled on muleback. The Mount Cenis Pass on the way from Lyons to Turin was the most travelled route into Italy. Tourists were carried by Swiss chairmen in a device like a chair without legs, mounted on poles.

One of the rare women to make the Grand Tour reported that the carriers were happy men who burst into song as they approached the alpine villages. Sometimes tourists had the thrill of sledding down a steep slope. Once in Turin the carriage was reassembled and the tourist began the slow trip around Italy.

MARSEILLES

If the 18th-century traveller chose to sail to Italy rather than scale the Alps, he would first travel to the south of France. The English were enchanted by the warm weather, sunshine and the fields of lavender, calling Provence “almost Paradise”. To sail across the Gulf of Genoa, a tourist engaged a fishing boat in Marseilles or Nice and had the coach once again hoisted onto a boat.
The Gulf of Genoa was known for its sudden squalls. The spectre of storm and shipwreck or attack by pirates hovered, but it could be much quicker than the long arduous trek through the mountains, and alpine passes were closed in the winter.

GENOA

Antonio Zucchi’s “View of the Basilica of Maxentius at the Roman Forum”.

In the port of Genoa, horses were obtained and the tourists began the round of Italian stops over the excellent Roman roads. Rome itself was a must-see. Naples, with its beautiful bay and the rediscovered cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, was a favourite destination, as was exotic Venice, the gateway to the East.

TURIN

Turin, with its sacred shorud, Pisa and its askew architecture and Milan with its even-then fashionable shops were popular with the Grand Tourists, and Mark Twain didn’t miss any of them in 1867 when the Americans joined the continental meandering. A century earlier, the English raved about Italian cuisine in general, but sent warnings home to anyone joining them: “Be prepared to acquire a taste for meats such as small birds, porcupine, pigeon meat, sausage, fried frogs and boiled snails”.

Other locations included on some Grand Tours included Spain and Portugal, eastern Europe and the Balkans and the Baltic, but these places lacked the same interest and historical appeal and had substandard roads that made travel much more difficult, so they remained off most itineraries.

MILAN

True Williams’ sketch of the Milan Cathedral for Mark Twain’s travelogue “The Innocents Abroad”.

While the goal of the Grand Tour was educational, a great deal of time was spent in frivolity.

Plenty of excessive drinking, gambling and intimate encounters were rationalised away as “education”. The journals and sketches that were supposed to be completed during the Tour were often left quite blank.

VENICE

In Venice, where sophisticated prostitutes had flourished since Renaissance times, the chief attraction for young English males was women. As Samuel Johnson remarked, “If a young man is wild, and must run after women and bad company, it is better this should be done abroad.”
Canaletto’s “View of the Rio di Cannargio”.

A prime time to visit Venice was during Carnival. In other Catholic cities it lasted only 12 days, but in Venice it was celebrated for the entire period between Christmas and Lent, which could be more than two months. Some of the greatest view painters and engravers of the 18th century, like Canaletto and Piranesi, came from the Venice area.

FLORENCE

In Florence, the studious and ambitious studied art in the Uffizi Gallery.

The less ambitious followed a less vigorous routine, according to the poet Thomas Gray, since they “get up at twelve o’clock, breakfast till three, dine till five, sleep till six, drinking cooling liquors till eight, go to the bridge till 10, sup till two and so sleep till twelve again”.

ROME

Rome was in many ways the climax of the Grand Tour. It was a city of contrasts: Unpaved streets led past grand palaces and plazas, ancient monuments like the Pantheon or Arch of Constantine were the backdrop to modern urban life. The ruins, hills and springs provided pleasant viewing for tourists and material for students of art.

NAPLES

For 18th-century travellers, Naples was a mythic place dominated by the powerful presence of Mount Vesuvius. The volcanic landscape and ancient ruins made Naples an exotic locale for travellers whose principal destination was Rome. On the island of Sicily could be found the most complete examples of ancient Greek architecture in Italy.

HERCULANEUM

Rome was initially the southernmost point the Grand Tourists would travel, but when excavations began at the accidentally rediscovered sites of Herculaneum in 1738 and Pompeii in 1748, those two cities also became must-see destinations.

Travellers bought many souvenirs, such as pieces of Roman art which might include vases and sculpture. The transportation of the bulky purchases and safety in numbers meant that very wealthy tourists generally took more than one carriage with them on the tour. The account book kept by Lord Burlington’s head servant listed 878 pieces of baggage on their arrival back in Dover. Many of the pieces of baggage would have been crates of paintings, books and antiquities.

BERLIN

The roads in Germany and Austria were widely regarded as some of the worst in Europe (”Transportation in Germany sends many tourists into an uproar,” one noted”). Even on main roads to Berlin and Hannover the carriages would often sink up to their axles in the muddy roadway.

HANNOVER

The inns of German were notoriously bad in the early days of the Grand Tour. “One is lucky to receive food and clean straw on which to sleep,”
carped one Brit. “In some cases there are no chimneys or private bedrooms. The rooms have broken windows and in some cities, animals are known to sleep in rooms with the travellers.”

Many a letter was written home from Germany pining for the attentive landlord and excellent food of the English inn, and a common sentiment was that they were in a country “at least a century behind the rest of Europe”. On the other hand the travel on the rivers was commodious and swift, particularly on the Danube from Regensburg to Vienna.

MUNICH

The German inns might be bad, but the German courts were very hospitable and always invited English tourists to dinner without inquiry as to birth or title. Munich, with its fine architecture and Trier with its Elector’s Palace (shown here) – which all the 18th-century guidebooks recommended – were favourite destinations.

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VIENNA

Vienna, especially if reached via the caress of the Danube instead of the mauling of the roads, was always rewarding for the Grand Tourists who ventured this way thanks to the baroque Belvedere and Schönbrunn palaces.

LEIDEN

Many Grand Tour travellers 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 excellent merchants ships.

Travel within the Low Countries was facilitated by excellent roads. The Antwerp-Brussels road was even paved. Holland must have seemed a garden indeed with the whole coast from Leiden to Haarlem heavily planted with tulips.

ANTWERP

Upon their return to England, Tourists were supposedly ready to assume the responsibilities of an aristocrat. The Grand Tour as an institution was ultimately worthwhile, for it has been given credit for a dramatic improvement in British architecture and culture.

ON WITH LIFE

The French Revolution in 1789 marked the end of the Grand Tour for many, and in the early 19th century, railroads totally changed the face of tourism and travel across the continent.
By the 1850s Thomas Cook’s affordable, all-inclusive package tours of Scotland were so successful that by the 1870s Cook’s Tours offered trips to all parts of the world, opening up the Grand Tour to the middle classes. In fact, by the end of America’s Civil War, travel by ship and train had become quite routine and the rapidly growing wealthy classes in America began to take to the seas and rails to participate in the tradition of the Grand Tour.
By the late 19th century the Grand Tour had become an essentially American phenomenon. Not surprisingly, this group of newly wealthy citizens of a relatively young country found context and meaning for their lives and good fortune by thinking of themselves as heirs of a great Western Tradition. They traced their cultural lineage from the Greeks, through the Roman Empire, to the European Renaissance.
In 1867 Mark Twain took a sort of Cook’s tour to Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, sending back dispatches to Alta California, a San Francisco newspaper that sponsored his trip. There were later published as “The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim’s Progress”, a book that sold 70,000 copies in its first year, which was a feat Twain was never again able to match in his lifetime. Twain and his fellow tourists extended the Grand Tour to encompass, as well as Pisa, Lecco, Sicily and Athens on the continent, Constantinople, Damascus, Smyrna, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Giza.
William Randolph Hearst took his first Grand Tour at the age of 10 in 1873, spending a year and a half travelling and launching his habit of collecting. The bachelor President Grover Cleveland delayed marrying the much younger Francis Folsom so that she could take the Grand Tour after completing her college education. The New World, and much of the rest of the planet, have been knocking on Europe’s door ever since, in ever-increasing numbers.

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The information in this article was scalped from the Historical Text Archive, the University of Michigan, the Getty foundation and GrandTour.org.