SPOTLIGHT ON ABRUZZO'S GRAND TOUR HISTORY
“Mondo Grand Tour”, an exhibition in the State Archives of the Aurum Museum of Pescara gives a fascinating overview of the impressions recorded by foreign explorers who ventured into what was considered the unknown wilds of Abruzzo in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the years when visitors from Northern Europe and America undertook the Grand Tour of Rome, Tuscany and Venice, Abruzzo was viewed as a potentially wild and dangerous place, full of impenetrable mountains, wolves, bandits and inhospitable villages.
This image, however, captured the imagination of the more adventurous and curious travellers, who ventured into the little known reaches of this 18th century “far west”, leaving records of their impressions and experiences.
The exhibition “Mondo Grand Tour”, curated by writer and historian Antonio Bini, documents the experiences recorded by those early tourists, with a collection of rare documents, first editions, copies of articles from newspapers and magazines of the period, as well as sketches and drawings, and the first guide books and tourist information pamphlets of the region. On view are copies of rare books, such as Edward Lear's “Illustrated Excursions in Italy” (1846) and “The Shepherds of the Abruzzi” by Charles MacFarlane (1833), as well as references to the Scandinavian artists' colony, set up by the Danish Impressionist Kristian Zhartmann in the village of Civita d'Antino in 1883.
The visit can be coordinated with a tour of the Imago Museum, also in Pescara, which contains an important collection of 130 works by the group of Scandinavian artists in Italy who gravitated around Zhartmann, living and working in harmony together until their pleasant dream was shattered by the tragic Marsica earthquake of 1915.
“Mondo Gran Tour” closes on the 15th January 2025 but the Imago Museum collection is on permanent display.
Info: Museo Imago Tel.+39.85.2059056 Museo Aurum Tel, +39.085.454.9508
