Aspetti del percorso odeporico di un aristocratico milanese fra antico regime e rivoluzione

In the Eighteenth century, travel became an essential element of aristocratic life, whether it was intended as a final phase in a young noblemen’s education after his school years, or whether it was undertaken as an adult experience. At the centre of this paper is the figure of a Milanese patrician, Lorenzo Trotti, who travelled extensively during the 1780s and 1790s, visiting cities, salons, literati and courts throughout Europe. In some ways, his travelling experience was a kind of traditional grand tour, but as the revolution progressed his diaries and correspondence show a growing resentment mingled with worry, following a political path familiar to many aristocrats in these troubled years. In a short time, Trotti moved from an abstract idea of liberty based on the reformist activities of enlightened sovereigns to the rejection and condemnation of all attacks against the corporate ancien régime society and finally to the relief caused by the re-establishment of Austrian power in Lombardy, in the delusive hope that this would bring about a return to Maria Theresia’s reign.