grand tour

Noun capitalized: Grand Tour

Grand Tour (plural Grand Tours)

1. One of the three most prominent cycling races: either the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.
2. (historical, 17th-19th centuries) A traditional trip around Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men.
   • Three hundred years ago, wealthy young Englishmen began taking a post-Oxbridge trek through France and Italy in search of art, culture and the roots of Western civilization. With nearly unlimited funds, aristocratic connections and months (or years) to roam, they commissioned paintings, perfected...2008 September 5, Matt Gross, “Lessons From the Frugal Grand Tour”, in New York Times, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2008
   • By the late eighteenth century, the nearby city of Naples was a goal for every educated traveler, and a visit to Capri a high point of every Grand Tour. In fact, looking back over the last 250 years, it seems that every sexual libertarian in the West made his or her way to its shores, where...2011, Tony Perrottet, The Sinner's Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europe, Broadway Books, →ISBN, page 254