In the past "Grand Tour" was the name of the journey thatthe European noblemen and rich bourgeois took in Italy, to discover its ancient beauty and its incomparable richness of arts and culture. It was more than a simple tour or a passing fashion, it became a fundamental moment in the cultural training of every cultivated European.  

"There is certainly no place in the world where a man may travel with greater Pleasure and Advantage than in Italy. One finds something more particular in the face of the country and more astonishing in the works of nature, than can be met with any other part of Europe. It is the great school of Music and Painting, and contains in it all the noblest Productions of Statuary and Architecture, both Ancient and Modern ....There is scarce any part of the Nation that is not Famous in History, nor so much as a Mountain or River that has not been the scene of some extraordinary Action."

Joseph Addison, 1745