The Tourists of the Past in Calabria: Here «You Suffer and You Enjoy Yourself »

• Main Author: Simonetta Valtieri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria 2019-07-01
• Series: ArcHistoR Architettura Storia Restauro - Architecture History Restoration
• Subjects: Calabria; turisti; viaggio
• Online Access: http://pkp.unirc.it/ojs/index.php/archistor/article/view/463

A particular interpretative key of the characteristics of Calabria in the eyes of travellers of the past revolves around the expression «we suffer and enjoy», reported by the Abbot Giovanni Battista Pacichelli in his famous volume Il regno di Napoli in prospettiva, published in Naples in 1703 after a methodical expedition completed about ten years earlier. From a story by Leandro Alberti, Bologna, 1525, in the tales of ancient "tourists", the suffered hardships due to difficult internal road connections - which forced travellers to favour sea travel - were offset by the enjoyment of the exceptional nature of the landscapes, which often included villages. It was only from the travel chronicles of Henry Swinburne, who arrived in Calabria in 1777, that the parameters of judgment on the one hand opened to include the features of popular folklore, while on the other, they focused more on the illuminist origins of the feudal system and the monopolies (of the King and feudal Lords). Tourists interpreted the "different" behaviour of the inhabitants of the region, not as a sign of uncultured, but of a different culture.¬ However, in the Voyage Pittoresque, the texts written by the abbot of Saint-Non, based on the diary of Dominique Vivant Denon - head of his expedition who twice travelled to Calabria, in the spring and autumn of 1778 - reflect the essence of the landscape of the region as the result of a miraculous balance between nature and the work of man.