A casa dell’«aubergiste de l’Europe» tra Ginevra e Ferney: pellegrinaggi intellettuali di ieri e turismo letterario di oggi nell’esilio felice di Voltaire

Traveller, world citizen, escapist, writer in exile: Voltaire’s intense life was dotted with obligatory or deliberate journeys around Europe. At the age of sixty, a new phase of his existence began: still waiting for permission to return to Paris denied by Louis XV after his stay at Frederick II’s court, he decided to settle in Switzerland. In the Genevan mansion Les Délices, but above all in the French estate of Ferney (1759-1778), just across the frontier, Voltaire spent a happy and industrious (self-)exile, as a man of culture, maecenas, entrepreneur. His dwellings turned into the headquarters of the Enlightenment, and he welcomed colleagues and disciples. A destination for secular pilgrimages for the indispensable visite to the 18th century’s most charismatic man of letters and thought, Les Délices and Ferney are today excellent hubs for experiencing literary tourism around Voltaite’s profile, work and world, and meantime for promoting the territory over and above its conservation and the biographical narration. This is thanks to substantial investments in terms of restoration, project planning, valorisation and diversified fruition opportunities, carried out in a synergy between academic institutions, local authorities and citizens.