Who could read the programme for the excursion without longing to make
one of the party? So Mark Twain acclaims his voyage from New York City
to Europe and the Holy Land in June 1867. His adventures produced The
Innocents Abroad, a book so funny and provocative it made him an
international star for the rest of his life. He was making his first responses to the Old World - to Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Constantinople, Sebastopol, Balaklava, Damascus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. For the first time he was seeing the great paintings and sculptures of the Old Masters . He responded with wonder and amazement, but also with exasperation, irritation, disbelief. Above all he displayed the great energy of his humour, more explosive for us now than for his beguiled contemporaries.
map of Twain's travel
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