The Grand Tour of Europe became increasingly popular among women in the late 18th century and early 19th century. For British upper-class young women travelling Europe was part of formal education as well as a form of entrance into elite society. When published, women’s letters and travel diaries about their experiences provided entertainment and vicarious travel for a less elite audience.
History
The Grand Tour was a voyage for education and pleasure for wealthy young men that mainly occurred between the years 1550 and 1850. The Grand Tour was mainly a British cultural phenomenon and focused mostly on the art and culture of Italy. Most travel was between major cities within Western Europe such as Paris and Rome, and hardly any to Eastern Europe.
The typical traveler on the Grand Tour was a gentleman of the wealthy and elite class. Even though the Grand Tour was designed for gentlemen, female spouses or family members of Grand Tourists would accompany them. These instances were not common as men typically embarked on the Grand Tour around the age of 17 before marriage. Women rarely traveled alone, so any experience on the Grand Tour was to accompany a husband or relative.
Women without wealth or means of marrying into it had very limited options for travel. Outside of the standard tour, the only other viable options for women to travel were either by eloping with a lover in another country or arranging employment as a governess with a traveling family. Around the mid 18th century there began to be more talk from high-society women intellectuals, or “blue-stockings”, about woman’s right to her own interests and voice. This movement paved the way for some women of influence to be able to travel Europe without the presence of a man. Additionally, towards the end of the 18th century the costs of travel decreased and new modes of reliable transportation became increasingly accessible which facilitated travel for middle-class women.
Published accounts
Women on the Grand Tour often wrote detailed letters home to their friends and family to describe their experiences. Occasionally the letters would be published as a sort of early women’s guide to travel in Europe. Chief among these being Lady Anna Miller’s Letters from Italy published in 1776 which detailed her tour of Italian arts with her husband. During her travels from 1770 to 1771 in Italy, Miller wrote letters to a friend in France describing her interactions with and views on the culture and customs. Miller also offered recommendations and critiques of the art scene in Italy. Miller’s book was published as a guide other Grand Tourists on what to expect about Italian culture and which sights and art to seek out during their travels.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu travelled to Italy three different times during her life. Montagu did not originally intend for her letters from Italy to be published. Her letters from her tours of Italy were published at different times over a period of 150 years. Montagu’s letters were mainly described her sightseeing, the current events on Italy, and her personal thoughts and views. Montagu’s motivation to travel to Italy was her fascination with an Italian poet half her age named Francesco Algarotti. Scholars also suspect her sudden uproot to Italy was a form of feminist protest to break away from societal expectations of being an upper-class housewife and mother. It appeared that Algarotti did not return her affection and stood her up on her first voyage to Venice to meet him, and the two eventually reunited in Turin on a second visit but it was not the romantic encounter Montagu imagined it would be. Despite these setbacks, Montagu was content because she felt the beauty of Italy had “wooed” her instead. After Montagu’s decision to move permanently to Italy in 1742 she was forced to flee to France for a period of four years to escape political turmoil. Montagu returned to settle in the province of Brescia near Lake Iseo in Northern Italy in 1746, and in 1756 made her final move to live in Venice where she remained until her death in 1762.