Deep Mapping the Thoughts and Emotions Evoked by the Historical Attractions of Sicily during the Grand Tour

This article presents an interdisciplinary approach which includes digital humanities, emotionology, and spatial humanities applied to an archaeological context. The aim is to produce a digital deep map, by means of the Geographical Information System (GIS), of the historical attractions of Sicily, Italy, depicting the emotional responses, and the opinions described in the travelogues of the Grand Tour travellers. Mapping the emotions and opinions of the travellers reveals the idea that Northern and Central European travellers had of Sicily. The article compares different historical landmarks and demonstrates that travellers had a major interest in Greek and Roman antiquities. However, we can see that there were also conflicting impressions about the same material evidence, or area. The combination of emotionology, archaeology, and spatial humanities helps in reasoning about the role of antiquities, the sense of place, and the identity of places and people.