And even since, and now, fair Italy!
Thou art the garden of the world, the home
Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree;
Even in thy desert, what is like to thee?
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto IV, XXVI
Byron praised Italy in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the poem inspired by his travels around Europe, extolling the country as an unmatched land of beauty, culture, and history. More importantly, he identified Italy as the ultimate destination for the discerning connoisseur of art during the long eighteenth century. This spirit of admiration both for Italy and for art is echoed in this new travel documentary which retraces Byron’s Grand Tour on the 200th anniversary of his death, exploring the history and culture of three eighteenth-century tourist hotspots: Venice, Florence and Rome. For this, the BBC assembles an unlikely pair: Rylan Clark (reality show regular) and Rob Rinder (barrister turned TV presenter of Judge Rinder fame). As the show makes clear, they are intentionally paired to bring together the high-brow (Rob, who ‘loves talking about art’), and low-brow (Rylan, ‘who doesn’t know his arts from his elbow’). Yet across three hour-long episodes, the series offers a varied cultural experience which has much to teach us about the importance of challenging these divisions and prejudices, and the value of seeing things in a new light.
The visits to the three cities encompass a variety of activities that swings from typical tourist traps to cultural events — but where the emphasis is often on doing, not just observing — and more contemporary popular pursuits. In the first episode, Rob conducts an encore in the Church of Vivaldi in Venice before the pair join a drag group and parade through the city’s streets. In Florence, the presenters are privy to the unveiling of a digital reconstruction of the first female nude by Artemisia Gentileschi before hitting the city’s gay clubs. In Rome, they experience a performance from a modern version of the operatic Castrati (male singers castrated before puberty to retain their high voices) before donning extravagant wigs as they dress up as ‘macaronis’.
It is refreshing to see both Rob and Rylan engage in activities that are outside of their usual zones of expertise. Beyond simplistic low-brow / high-brow divisions, in Episode 2, they more meaningfully compare themselves to the head (Rob) and heart (Rylan). This is an apt assessment that runs throughout the series: where Rob provides the book-learning and scholarly perspective, Rylan’s reactions to, and interpretation of, the art and architecture are grounded in raw emotion and intuition. It is this offering of a familiar activity (e.g. seeing Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’) through an unfamiliar lens (the eyes of Rylan – accompanied with Banarama’s ‘Venus’ as backdrop) which is the series’ biggest draw. We experience these works anew through a refreshingly straightforward and unpretentious perspective, expressed in accessible and down-to-earth language. Rylan offers insightful comments that are frequently humourous, but also as frequently astute: for example, he observes that in Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna of Loreto’, the Virgin poses similarly to Strictly’s Janette Manrara. This pose, Clark notes, allows her to divert her attention away from the pilgrims, emphasising her role as ‘host’, and simultaneously foregrounding Jesus, whose gaze is directed towards them. ‘I’m seeing what I’ve always seen in things but been frightened to say before in case I’m wrong’ he later comments, an important reflection on the inherent elitism which is often written into these cultural experiences and their presentation in the media.
For me, the most valuable part of the show from an educational perspective was its ability to offer new perspectives and to intertwine the past with the present by extrapolating from the cities’ histories to broader contemporary concerns and issues. Episode Two in Florence focuses on the concept of masculinity: it contrasts the pristine aestheticism of Michelangelo’s David with the earlier more realistic Donatello statue: ‘this one’s got a normal belly, natural bloating’, notices Rylan. After, the episode showcases a shocking aspect of modern masculinity through the rugged violence of ‘Calcio Storico’ Florence’s part-MMA, part-rugby blood sport, during which we see mass scrums and a man carried off the pitch on a stretcher. This episode also has interesting reflections on body image: after trying out life modelling for themselves, Rylan muses on the Renaissance’s concept of the ‘perfect man’ and considers its impact on centuries of body idealism in media and art.
By having two openly gay presenters, the show frequently broaches the LGBTQ+ histories of these cities, an aspect which remains overlooked in both popular culture and scholarship. In doing so, it draws comparisons which have important impetus for LGBTQ+ rights today. The show, for instance, challenges our assumptions of the repressive past, by contrasting the respective sexual liberty of Venice in the long eighteenth century with Italy’s conservative oppression of LGBTQ+ rights today, a situation that is patent when Rylan and Rob experience homophobic abuse during their drag parade. In juxtaposing these different perspectives, the show implicitly makes the argument for why it is still important to learn about the eighteenth century — it can teach us much about the society we live in today. Whilst being a good laugh and an entertaining watch, this show also challenges us to think about the ways in which we approach eighteenth-century culture and history, and the benefits that can come from revisiting and reinterpreting the past through new perspectives which aim to encompass inclusivity at every level.