Overview

Even before the advent of mass tourism, Verona was a popular destination for travellers, including those undertaking the popular 'Grand Tour' across Europe. In this book, Caroline Webb compares the experiences of travellers from the era of Shakespeare to the years following the incorporation of the Veneto into the new kingdom of Italy in 1866. She considers their reasons for visiting Verona as well as their experiences and expectations once they arrived. The majority of English visitors between 1670 and 1760 were young members of the aristocracy, accompanied by tutors, who arrived on their way to or from Rome, as part of a 'Grand Tour' intended to 'finish' their classical education. With the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the eighteenth century, and the resultant increasing wealth of the upper middle classes, the number of visitors to Verona increased although this tourism was derailed once Napoleon invaded Italy in the late 1790s. After 1815 and the allied victory at Waterloo there was a new flood of visitors, previously deprived of the opportunity of continental travel during the Napoleonic wars. As the nineteenth century progressed, especially with the arrival of the railway, an increasing number of visitors appeared from across Europe and even from across the Atlantic, keen to explore the fabled city of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In comparing a myriad of varied accounts, this book provides an unrivalled perspective on the history of one of Italy's most seductive cities.

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9781350174252

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Reviews

From more than 400 books and manuscripts, Caroline Webb has selected impressions of Verona [...]. The overall effect is entertaining, and Visitors to Verona is also an informative guide to the city and to many aspects of Italian history. * Linday Duguid, Times Literary Supplement, 2017 * This book is a delight to read and provides a charming and fresh picture of Verona's daily life in past centuries. The author combines facts and travellers' accounts with masterly skill in a cohesive and lively framework. * Giandemetrio Marangoni, Professor, University of Verona, Italy * Visitors to Verona brings together a fascinating collection of writings, offering all kinds of insights into the national characters of both the Italians and the British, how they changed over centuries of travel and tourism and how each reacted to the other, whether with prejudice and admiration, or both. It's an intriguing slice of history and rich food for thought. * Tim Parks, Author of Italian Neighbours and A Season with Verona * This is a richly informative cornucopia of travel accounts of one of Italy's most fascinating cities. * Edward Chaney, Professor of Fine and Decorative Arts, Southampton Solent University, UK * Visitors to Verona is a rich compendium of travellers' impressions of Verona in the 18th and 19th century. It is lively, amusing and extremely instructive as to the checkered history of the city [...] thus reminding us of how much Verona has endured. [...] Caroline Webb has done a service to the visitor who wants to appreciate more deeply all that Verona means and has meant to its citizens and guests. * Massimo Bacigalupo, Professor of American Literature, University of Genoa, Italy *

Author Information

Caroline Webb graduated in History from the University of London and read Italian and Art History in Cambridge and Verona. She has worked as a historical researcher and teacher and is co-author of The Earl and His Butler in Constantinople: The Secret Diary of an English Servant among the Ottomans (I.B.Tauris, 2008).

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