Des de mitjans del segle setze, els joves aristòcrates anglesos continuaven els estudis al continent, pricipalment a França, Itàlia i Grècia. Li'n deien el Grand Tour. Molts d'aquests estudiantss publicaven les seves experiències al The Spectator o al The Gentleman's Magazine. Un d'ells, Joseph Addison, de viatge de Roma a Nàpols, deixa constància de la bellesa del país, la pobresa de la població local, la forma de govern dels prínceps. Addison era a Nàpols el divendres sant, hi trobà Felip d'Anjou i anotà la perplexitat que li causaren les institucions i cerimònies catòliques.
"Naples. My first days at Naples were taken up with the sights of processions, which are always very magnifient in the Holly Week. It would be tedious to give an account of the several representations of our Saviour's death and resurrections, of the figures of himself, the Blessed Virgin, and the Apostles, which are carried up and down on this occassion, with the cruel penances that several inflict on themselves, and the multitude of cerimonies that attend these solemnities. I saw, at he same time, a very splendid procession for the accession of the Duke of Anjou to the Crown of Spain, in which the Vice-Roy bore his part at the left hand of Cardinal Cantelmi. To grace the parade, the exposed, at the same time, the blood of Saint Januarius, which liquefied at the approach of the Saint 's head, though, as they say, it was hard congealed before
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Joseph Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the years 1701, 1702, 1703. Travel Writing. 1700-1830. An anthology, editat per Elisabeth A. Bohld i Ian Ducan (Oxford University Press)
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Joseph Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the years 1701, 1702, 1703. Travel Writing. 1700-1830. An anthology, editat per Elisabeth A. Bohld i Ian Ducan (Oxford University Press)
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