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In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, young aristocrats and poets set off on what was called the Grand Tour. The destination that mattered most was Italy, where ruins, art, and lively cafés promised knowledge and inspiration in equal measure.
Timeless Journeys: The Italian Grand Tour takes that idea and puts it on your table. Instead of dragging a trunk through the Alps, you play cards, move across a map of Italy, and fill your travel journal with ideas, friends, and exploration from the cities you visit. The game runs over five rounds, and in the end you have your own story of a cultural journey.
👥 1-5 players, ages 14+
⌛ Playing time: 60-120 minutes
📝 Designers: Nestore Mangone & Andrea Robbiani
🎨 Artwork: Laura Guglielmo
🏢 Publisher: Lirius Games (preview copy provided)
Check out the Kickstarter campaign by clicking here
Gameplay Overview
Timeless Journeys lets you follow in the footsteps of those early travelers, searching for art, history, science and philosophy. The journey takes place over five rounds, each divided into four phases.
It starts with the action phase. Everyone takes turns playing a card until five have been played. Travel cards allow movement along the map or exploration of a city. Friendship cards let you build connections, exchange letters and place tokens with famous travelers. Inspiration cards give you ideas, which can be tucked into your journal for endgame points or spent in cafés for quick rewards. Later on, festivity cards join in, giving more flexible options.
The clever part is the chaining. If you repeat a card type within the same round, all earlier cards of that type reactivate. This makes for some satisfying combinations once your deck is stronger. If you do not want to play a card for its main effect, you can place it face down for a small benefit like coins or a chance to buy an advanced card.
After the actions, there is the famous traveler phase. Three travelers are on the board at a time, and meeting them gives you different rewards. Some help during the round, others give bonuses at the end. Tokens placed with them also count for majority scoring at the end of the game.
Next is the market phase. Everyone can pick one advanced card. The number of categories you played in the round decides how powerful the cards you can access are. These cards expand your options and add points at the end.
Finally there is the reorganisation phase. The market is refreshed, you get your cards back, hands are trimmed down to eight, the travelers move to new cities, and the next round begins.
After five rounds, you count up everything: journals, cafés, favors, exploration, advanced cards and traveler majorities. The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, whoever travelled furthest south wins, so Sicily suddenly becomes very important.
Artwork, Components and Visual Design
(Our plays are based on a prototype copy, so details may still change.)
The main board shows a stylised map of Italy with clear routes between the cities. Around it sit the city boards, each with artwork that reflects its character. Torino has its elegant squares, Bologna its university life, Naples its busy streets. These are not just decoration, they also show the actions you can take there.
The travel journals are the part that caught our eye first. They look like open sketchbooks where you slot in tiles for friends, ideas and exploration. Over the game they fill up and turn into a personal diary of your journey. It gives the game table a nice sense of story.
The cards are light and elegant, with delicate borders that feel right for the time period. Each type of card has its own colour, which makes them easy to follow. The famous travelers like Mary Shelley, Lord Byron or Mark Twain are shown on standees and Gazette cards in a style that looks like old engravings.
Tokens add some colour. Wooden café cups, exploration tiles with landmarks, bright idea tokens for art, science, history and philosophy, and coins that look ready for a coffeehouse table. All together the game has a strong table presence without feeling overloaded.
Our Experience
What stood out most in our plays was the flow of the rounds. You play your cards, see the travelers move, refresh and go again. It is smooth, and because the rounds are short, every action feels like it matters.
The chaining system quickly became the part we enjoyed most. Playing a card and seeing all your earlier ones of that type reactivate is very satisfying. It creates a sense of momentum that fits the idea of a journey.
The first rounds are a bit slow, since your starting cards are not very strong. But once you add advanced cards, the game speeds up. By round three you can create clever combinations that feel powerful without being complicated. We often had to choose between repeating a colour to make chains stronger or diversifying in order to qualify for better advanced cards. That decision kept the tension going.
Interaction between players is there, but it is not direct conflict. With two or three players the game feels more like a puzzle of timing. With four or five, competition over cafés, travelers and Gazette columns becomes sharper. Arriving at a café one turn too late can be annoying, but it is the kind of annoyance that makes you want to plan better next time.
The travel journals gave each of us a personal arc. At first we were not sure we could fill them, but as the game developed it became possible. Watching them come together was rewarding.
The famous travelers provided some of the most memorable moments. Racing to meet Montesquieu or timing a visit to Mary Shelley gave the game some narrative spark. Since only three appear each game, and their routes change, there was enough variety to keep things fresh.
Our Thoughts
Timeless Journeys sits comfortably in the medium-weight euro category. If you have played Newton, you might notice similarities, which makes sense since both games are co-designed by Nestore Mangone. The chaining system here has the same feel of making repeated actions stronger, but in a slightly cleaner way.
What we liked most is how the mechanisms and the theme fit together. Writing letters, filling journals, meeting travelers and debating in cafés all feel like part of the journey, not just abstract actions.
The game rewards balancing between short-term and long-term goals. Cafés give points straight away, while journals and travelers pay off later. Exploration is stronger early, and advanced cards expand your deck and give points. Timing is important. With scoring spread across many sources it does lean toward being a point salad. That gives flexibility but sometimes also the feeling of getting points for almost everything.
Replayability is good. Different combinations of travelers, exploration tiles and bonuses keep sessions varied. For players who enjoy medium euro games with a clear rhythm and a touch of theme, this could be a solid fit.
Final Notes
The game is currently on Kickstarter. Our impressions come from a prototype copy provided by Lirius Games, so rules, components and artwork may still change.
If you ever wanted to sit in a café with Lord Byron or sketch ruins in Naples without leaving your table, Timeless Journeys gives you that chance. And at least here you do not have to carry your luggage across the Alps.
