Romantic Exiles in Italy: Experiencing the Southern Landscape

The end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 marked the return to the Continent of many British travellers. Italy was among their favourite destinations. The country’s history, art, and literature contributed to arouse Romantic interest. British travellers (poets, aristocrats and painters) swarmed to Italy in search of an ideal that Grand Tour memoirs, travel narratives and famous paintings had popularized. Therefore, it is interesting for the Italian student of English Literature and Culture to get acquainted with the Italian experiences of Romantic artists. The article follows John Polidori, Joseph Severn and Leigh Hunt as they approach the South and, by illustrating the first impressions they recorded in their personal papers, tries to see the Alps, the Bay of Naples, and the Mediterranean through their eyes.