This work deals with the Grand Tour as a social phenomenon and points out technical and cultural aspects of these 18th century pioneering travels for pleasure from which derives the leisure and cultural travels of our present time. The research bases upon the writings of three outstanding grand tourists to Italy - the British novelist Thobias Smollet, the German poet Johann W. von Goethe and the English expert in antiquities Richard Payne Knight. Based on information provided by their travel accounts, we look at the conditions under which the Grand Tour used to be taken in aspects such as routes and destinations, means of transportation, guides and lodging. The taste for art and architecture of antiques, the cult of ruins and the attraction of sublime aesthetic values are emphasized as those aspects underlying the cultural universe of the grand tourist. The emergence of a visuality derived from the so-called "classic" travel might also be observed.
Grand Tour; antiquities; ruins