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Pre-modern
travellers - Discovery
Holiday villa near
Pompeii for rich Romans
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/hsuantsang.shtml
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/marcopolo.shtml
http://www.ummah.net/history/scholars/ibn_battuta/
http://www.chinapage.com/zhenghe.html
The Grand Tour
During the
18th-century, thousands of
young aristocratic British tourists traveled to Italy to take part in
the "Grand Tour". The British came to Italy for education in art, music,
and literature, but also to collect experiences in drinking
and
having affairs far away from the critical eyes of the
British society. Education in the concepts and principles of ancient
Rome and the
culture of Italy became imperative during the Age
of the Enlightenment. Tourists traditionally followed a set routine of
traveling over the
Alps from Switzerland and entering Italy through the city of Turin. They
would
then visit Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, and sometimes also Naples in
the south. The height of the popularity of the
Grand Tour was from the 1760s to the French Revolution of 1789.
Because so many tourists went to Italy
to study art and painting, the British left an extensive record of their time on
the Grand Tour. The British also became infamous for their desire for
souvenirs, spurring a new trade in fake antiquities all over Italy. The Romans
coined the phrase "If the Colosseum were portable, the English would carry it
away".
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Only few rich and/or adventurous travellers