In June 1844, Dickens was making the final preparations for his trip to Italy. The family home in Devonshire Terrace had been let out for the year, which meant that immediately prior to leaving England he and his family were living temporarily in Osnaburgh Terrace – he writes on 11 June 1844 that:
The Marble Halls having fallen into the temporary possession of an ancient Princess (sent by a kind Fairy to take them for the term of my intended absence abroad) I am to be found in a temporary encampment as above. The which is proclaimed to all comers through the medium of a tin plate something larger than the largest sized teatray, boldly affixed to the right hand side of the Marble Porch of my vacated Castle.
For a man infamous for his predilection for control and precision within the home, this temporary setup must have been rather discomforting for Dickens, and his letters of June show evidence that he was, unsurprisingly, very much looking ahead to the imminent travel abroad. On the 24th June he writes ‘I start for Italy on Monday next’; but four days later he has to write ‘We do not go until Tuesday morning [2 July], as there is no boat on Monday.’
Dickens had been preparing for the trip to Italy for some time. He had employed an Italian tutor, Antonio Gallenga, since the latter part of 1843. Gallenga was an author himself, and a political exile living in England. Dickens had also commisioned his friend Angus Fletcher to go ahead to Italy and secure a home for the Dickens family – the Villa Bagnarello in Genoa, where they would stay from their arrival on 16 July 1844 through to September. For Dickens’ last major trip, to America, he and his wife had left the children back in England; but on this occasion the whole family would be accompanying him. This is indicative of the way this holiday would be a little calmer than the last. Whereas the American trip of 1842 was something of a madcap affair of a young celebrity on tour with hordes of admiring followers, Italy promised to be a little more sedate experience, less about the hustle and bustle of the new world and more about relaxing in the splendour of the classical world.
Italy had long been a popular tourist destination, initially with the Grand Tour and now for a wider class of people, for whom improved transport and social mobility allowed them the opportunity to visit places previously reserved only for the rich and upper class. Italy, and Rome especially, was a land of ruins and enchantment, steeped in history and culture. It was a place where tourists were travelling back in time as much as through space.
It also seems apparent that money, as much as culture, was a driving force for Dickens to visit Italy. By 1843 he had suffered a few commercial failures – Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit and the like had not continued the dizzying success of Pickwick or Oliver Twist. Even A Christmas Carol, though a huge success, had been published at Dickens’ own cost and with lavish, but expensive features that meant there was little profit left from the sales for Dickens. Going on the continent offered an opportunity to rent out their home in England while living more cheaply abroad. It was also noted by Dickens’ friend Forster that the break away provided Dickens with the necessary perspective to revive his writing career and progress – the next novel he would write after his return would be Dombey and Son, which signalled the end of madcap adventures written somewhat on the fly, and the beginning of Dickens’ more structured, grander novels.
But all that was still to come. Right now, Dickens was sitting in Osnaburgh Terrace, checking off the days until they left London…
Dickens In Italy 
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