Grand Tour Quotes

“And sometimes, sometimes, wanting things, wishing for, working for them, is a good thing. Otherwise, we become nothing but spoiled boys and girls frustrated that we don't get every new toy we see.”
― Lisa Tawn Bergren, Glittering Promises

“For the first time that day, I felt as if I could breathe. As if this, this was what God was leading me to. Waiting, abiding, resting. Enjoying what was rather than fearing what might be or resenting what had come before.”
― Lisa Tawn Bergren, Grave Consequences

“The English seem to relish unsystematic learning of this kind, in the same manner that they embarked upon "Grand Tours" of Europe in pursuit of a peripatetic scholarship.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination

“A man has not fully lived until he experiences that gentle balmy clime of ancient empires, the land of lemon trees and the genius of Michelangelo.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Vocation of a Gadfly

“Nothing like the tour to show people how poorly they fit together.”
― Lisa Tawn Bergren, Glittering Promises

“Grand Tourists and their retinues typically crossed the choppy English Channel at the Port of Dover, stepping onto French soil in Calais. From there, the parties would set off on a three-day trek to Paris. Once fitted for new clothes, many proceeded to decamp for a season or longer for their first taste of Continental culture. (...)

Not everyone took the same route. The more adventurous traveled from Paris to Lyon then farther south to Marseille, journeying by sea from Marseille to Livorno, in the Tuscany region, or Genoa, although the Italians’ lack of necessary sailing skills at that time made passage risky. Meanwhile, the wary typically trekked from Paris to Lyon then over the Alps. For the latter, Geneva was a subsequent stop, by default rather than preference. Despite the breathtaking beauty of the Alps, coaches—the mode of transport used at the time—simply could not traverse the treacherous Mont Cenis pass, ascending 6,827 feet. Invariably, the harrowing peaks and rocky precipices forced willing travelers to navigate by mule or sled. Regardless of the hassles, those who pressed on reaped extravagant rewards. (...)

All roads, however, ultimately led to Rome, befitting its vaunted history as the intellectual, scientific and artistic center of the Renaissance and Baroque culture.”
― Betty Lou Phillips, The Allure of French & Italian Decor

“But the Scottish patron on tour took home with him from Italy much more than his cargo of paintings, sculptures and antique marbles, the tangible souvenirs of his excursion to the south. He took home as well a sophistication of taste and an appreciation of the virtues of classicism which only contact with the Mediterranean inheritance could impart. Only sixty years before the building of the pedimented façade of Duff House in Banff, with its urns and roof-line statuary more in keeping with a southern sky, the typical laird's house in Scotland was still inspired by an economy of display and a strength of fabric deriving from less settled times. The 18th century saw the transportation to Scotland of the idea of the Italian palace, and Hopetoun or Floors or Chatelherault owe their existence to this inspiration.”
― Basil C. Skinner, Scots in Italy in the 18th Century

“Our peers and gentrie were content
To bide at hame and spend their rent:
But now to travel they are bent
Baith ane and a';
And cracks their credit ere they stint,
Sin' Wont's awa.”
― Alexander Nicol, The Rural Muse; or, A Collection of Miscellany Poems, both Comical and Serious