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How the Power of Travel for Cultural Improvement Began
The first gap years in Europe
We are familiar with the concept of the gap year: a year-long break from the treadmill of study and work, designed to broaden the mind and have new experiences.
Many head for Europe to visit the sites of artistic Paris and ancient Italy. It is a coming-of-age excursion that some see as a chance to indulge, whilst others view it as an essential element in their personal growth.
In its modern form, the gap year has its roots in the last century, but its genesis is as old as at least the 17th century, when young people of sufficient wealth undertook “The Grand Tour”, a trip around the principal cultural centres of Europe that could last for several years.
The First Gappers
For the first generations were upper-class sight-seers who travelled from Britain and other northern European countries, crossing the Alps into Italy to explore the heritage of the ancient world. The conditions of travel were tortuously slow if somewhat more opulent than today.
The practice was established in the 17th century and reached a peak in the 18th, when a journey from London to Florence, say, or Naples, would take anywhere from a month to over a year depending on the extent of the stopovers…
