The Grand Tour (History of European tourism)

Hunter Davies, The Grand Tour. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1986.

Hard cover, dustwrapper, 224 pages, endpaper maps, black-and-white illustrations.

Very good condition.

'Traditionally, the Grand Tour took young gentlemen across Europe to Italy. They went in search of culture, as part of their education, for amusement and good times, perhaps for their health, or even just for the journey itself, knowing they would would probably never pass that way again. It was not just young gentlemen, of course, but often their whole families, and their Grand Tour in the 18th and 19th centuries, would last for months, if not for years. A Grand Tour could be the experience of a lifetime.

'Hunter Davies has had the happy idea of doing a modern Grand Tour, retracing the steps and the routes, the places and experiences associated with the great days of the Grand Tour. It is very much a contemporary account, about his own impressions and the people he met, as over the last two years he made his way across Europe.'