21st Century Grand Tour

The Grand Tour

It was customary in the 17th and 18th centuries for young upper-class men, particularly from the British nobility, to embark on the Grand Tour, an educational rite of passage. It could be as short as a few months to as long as several years, with visits to France, Switzerland, and Italy with mandatory stops in Paris, Geneva, Florence, Venice, Rome, and later Pompeii. With a guide or tutor (cicerone), the focus would be on improving a Classical education with an emphasis on specific works of art and music. Prestige would be further enhanced with the souvenirs brought home: coins and medals, books, works of art, and scientific instruments all to be displayed and shown off in their library or drawing room when back home.

Inspired by Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) and Palladian architecture, the Georgian period of architecture flowered first during the 17th century before the English Civil War, and then again in the early 18th century. The English aristocrat Lord Burlington (1694–1753) was its biggest proponent and embraced this neoclassical style in his projects, primarily for his own London home, Burlington House (now the Royal Academy of Arts) on Piccadilly, Chiswick House Villa in Middlesex, and Tottenham House in Wiltshire. Based on classical design features from the ancient Roman and Greek Empires, the Georgian style relies on strict symmetry, especially for window and door placement, decorative window headers, entrance embellishments such as pediments, hip roofs and facades covered in brick, stone, or stucco. Neoclassical motifs such as Vitruvian waves, egg and dart, Greek key, swags and home