During the first half of the nineteenth century traveling and sojourning in Europe reflected a cultural climate marked by both resistance and enthusiasm. The conference is intended as well to cast light on the evolving changes in travel and sojourn in Naples and localities along the gulf during the first half of the nineteenth century, not failing to draw comparisons with other areas of Mediterranean Europe.

Argument

The Center for the Culture and History of Amalfi together with the University of Naples Federico II and the Francis Marion Crawford Center for Study and Research are organizing a three-day conference to discuss recent research on the history of travel and sojourn in European lands on the Mediterranean Sea. 

During the first half of the nineteenth century traveling and sojourning in Europe reflected a cultural climate marked by both resistance and enthusiasm. 

Italian cities, which were a major attraction for visitors in the latter half of the eighteenth century, were in search of domestic calm after the political and dynastic upheavals during the years of revolution and the Napoleonic wars. There was an increased mobility by men and women and a ferment of new ideas and experiences, that the conservative political climate of the restoration period, with all its controls on travelers, especially at border crossings and in the cities, could not check. 

For a growing number of travelers and visitors the cities became places of departure for more or less taxing travel to hitherto unfrequented regions. In many cases the itineraries were those that had first been established in the late eighteenth century by scientists, antiquaries, diplomats, and administrators, but now they were followed by different sorts of visitors, mainly artists and literati. Driven by new kinds of cultural interests, they were often willing to face challenging difficulties and discomforts due to the lack of the amenities and facilities they were accustomed to. 

Our hypothesis is that traveling and sojourning during the first half of the nineteenth century had characteristics that made them distinct from both the grand tours of the previous century and the tourism of the late 1800s. The period we are concerned with is a complex, manifold phase, whose history has not yet been studied in a systematic way. During those decades people who traveled to and stayed in towns that they were often visiting for the first time were imbued with the sensitivities of Romanticism and the ideals of political liberalism, which blended together to give rise to new feelings of identity, both national and European, while at the same time contributing to a desire for modernity, including a drive to be furnished with more advanced services and infrastructures, such as would eventually support tourism. 

The conference is intended as well to cast light on the evolving changes in travel and sojourn in Naples and localities along the gulf during the first half of the nineteenth century, not failing to draw comparisons with other areas of Mediterranean 

Europe. The focus on Naples is understandable, for the city and its surroundings had been a major point of classical and scientific interest in the late 1700s. In the early nineteenth century short-term visitors and permanent residents in Naples were soon attracted by the surroundings as well, especially to the south of the city. The new travelers not only ventured outside the town limits but often pushed beyond the customary haunts of the aristocracy of the kingdom. They began to show a preference for simpler places, such as Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri, and Ravello, less worldly but more suited to the new cultural and aesthetic canons. Facilities and services were quickly created to provide for this new geographical phenomenon, laying the basis for the later development of tourism.

Main themes

Some suggestions follow as to themes for talks to be proposed:
- theoretical questions and delimitation of the period under study
- social, cultural, and economic characteristics of travelers and visitors during the first half of the nineteenth century
- social, cultural, and economic relations with local communities
- the role of liberalism, Romanticism, and the drive toward modernity in determining itineraries
- literary and artistic works
- sources for the study of travel and sojourning during the first half of the nineteenth century

Submission guidelines

The conference is multi-disciplinary and invites contributions in both Italian and English. Simultaneous translation will be provided for all the talks.
The present call for papers is addressed to scholars of all levels, including younger researchers. Each of the final papers will undergo a double-blind peer review evaluation and will be published in two editions in 2016 and 2017.
To submit a proposal please send an abstract in Italian or English of no more than 2,000 strokes (counting spaces) and a biographical sketch of no more than 400 strokes,

no later than June 30,

2015, to Fabio D’Angelo fabiodangelo2003@gmail.com
All proposals will undergo a double-blind peer review evaluation.
The Scientific Committee will communicate the list of proposals accepted by July 15, 2015.

International Conference at Amalfi and Sorrento, January 27-29, 2016

Scientific Committee

• Annunziata Berrino (chair),
• Giovanni Camelia,
• Richard Ambrosini,
• Gilles Bertrand,
• Alfredo Buccaro,
• Giuseppe Cobalto,
• Antonino De Angelis,
• Renata De Lorenzo,
• Rosa Maria Delli Quadri,
• Marco Fincardi,
• Cédric Humair,
• Ewa Kawamura,
• Carlos Larrinaga Rodríguez,
• Gordon M. Poole,
• Dieter Richter,
• Pasquale Sabbatino.