Grand Tour was a part of the education of noble youth in the 17th and 18th century. This meant a couple of months, even 1-2 years European round tour to the cradle of western culture, Italy. Firstly it was important to the English and Scandinavian nobility to directly meet the ancient culture. This was almost compulsory for those who learnt arts (architecture, painter, sculptor etc.) in those days.
They visited several other countries during the tour where they spent weeks or months and studied the ancient monuments and artifacts there. Commonly Paris was the first stop, from there they went further through Switzerland to Italy. Naturally Rome was the final goal, after Florence, Pisa, Torino, Padua, Bologna, Venice and Genova. On the way back, these was followed by the universities of Germany, then cultural heritage of Flanders and Holland, they went home only after these. It is important fact that these tours weren’t led by religion, so this didn’t affect on destinations.
Commonly departure took place in reaching adult age, so when they became about 21 years old. Although servants didn’t go with them (commonly a valet and a cook), the young nobles were escorted by a male family member or a male friend (e.g. their teacher or doctor). At first the tour was taken by a kittereen, then the railway came to the fore after its appearance. Many of them visited also Greece, Austria or even Turkey.
The studied knowledge and artistic learning were taken home not only in their heads. It was a general custom to shop during the tour. Original ancient artifacts, marble statues, coin collections, frequently books for a whole library, paintings etc. were collected there. Naturally they didn’t take them all at once but from time to time they sent them (mail service) home. Commonly a whole room was furnished for the collection in a noble man’s home who did the Grand Tour, but some of them were placed in the representative rooms of the house. It was very fashionable to be painted with a famous ancient ruin or a renaissance building in the background. This wasn’t for flaunting their wealth but spreading this knowledge at home and giving proper reports for those who couldn’t go there (women, less wealthy etc.). But they focused not only on the arts of men but the beauty of the nature and wildlife also. Science went for an elite thing, so it was the aim to acquire proper skills in every discipline of it, so they could minimum talk about it. The more talented of them even wrote a book of their own tours.
Collections of nowadays can be arranged also to give the effect of the Grand Tour. Ask for help of an interior designer for this.
