Journey to Vienna. Two Italian diaries from the 17th century

In the field of modern travel studies, the direction of Italy has attracted general interest. In the course of the seventeenth century, however, written accounts of Italian journeys to Austria began to multiply. This article aims to summarise the known sources and then to focus on three almost unpublished diaries of Italian aristocrats' journeys to Vienna between 1666 and 1696, highlighting their value as sources for the history of art and culture: Giovanni Battista Doria Pamphilj, Francesco Riccardi and Scipione Santacroce visited Vienna and drew up a portrait of the city, describing the sedimented Italian presence at court, the customs, the sights and the building sites opened before and after the fateful circumstance of the Siege of Vienna, with a special attention to the imperial collections of works of art.