The interior of the Pantheon in the 18th century, painted by Giovanni Paolo Panini The Grand Tour was a European travel itinerary that flourished from about 1660 until the arrival of mass rail transit in the 1820s. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was first coined by Richard Lassels, a Roman Catholic priest who wrote The Voyage of Italy, which was published posthumously in Paris in 1670. It was popular amongst young British upper-class men and served as an educational rite of passage for the wealthy. Similar trips were made by the wealthy of other Northern European nations. Its primary value lay in the exposure both to the cultural artefacts of antiquity and the Renaissance and to the aristocratic and fashionable society of the European continent. A grand tour could last from several months to several years.