Travelers in a Mediterranean city: Naples between the 17th and 19th centuries

For the pre-unification period we are still far from the current idea of tourism and even more can not speak of mass tourism. Tour operators like Thomas Cook will arrive in Italy until the second half of the 800 when Grand Tour is declining. The Grand Tour, spread by 18th century, was considered ad a long journey in continental Europe made by the wealthy young aristocrats and intended to complete their education with start and finish in the same city. This trip could last from few months to 8 years. The main destinations were France, Holland, Germany, but it had as a special target Italy and Rome, and normally included the stages of Venice, Florence, Bologna, Pisa and Naples. During the Tour, young people learned about the politics, culture, art and antiquities of European countries. They spent their time doing sightseeing, studying and making purchases. Italy with its legacy of ancient Rome, with its monuments, became one of the most popular places to visit. In addition to knowledge of the ancient world, the British were in contact with the works of Palladio and Neoclassicism. Naples, particularly when it became the capital with the arrival of the Bourbon dynasty on the throne, was among the final goals of Grand-Tour. Besides the natural beauty and the warmth of the mild climate throughout the year, the European cultural elite was interested in history and art of southern peninsula. Southern Italy picked up the legacy of the Magna Graecia and the suggestions of the Roman Empire, which could see both east and west of the city. But there were also the Vesuvius, the Solfatara, the Campi Flegrei, places related to events and impressive yet scientifically unproven, and arouse the curiosity of naturalists, scholars of flora and fauna but also painters and artists. But what were the ways and means of transport to arrive in the Kingdom? What were the documents that were present at the border? And again who they were, where to stay? We may find answers in the fruit development of a survey of documentation of the time.