Italy’s Eighteenth Century

In the age of the Grand Tour, foreigners flocked to Italy to gawk at its ruins and paintings, enjoy its salons and cafés, attend the opera, and revel in their own discovery of its past. But they also marveled at the people they saw, both male and female. In an era in which castrati were "rock stars," men served women as cicisbei , and dandified Englishmen became macaroni , Italy was perceived to be a place where men became women. The great publicity surrounding female poets, journalists, artists