It's entirely coincidental that I'm covering this article on "The Italian Taste" (i.e., homosexuality) in late 18th century France right after airing the podcast on Anne Lister's courtship strategies that included her slang term "going to Italy" for engaging in sexual relations with women. It was fairly common for historic cultues to attribute either the practice or the origins of homosexual relations to some other neighboring culture. The English tended to view France as the origin of non-normative sexual practices, while France looked to Italy. (Though it depended to some extent on which specific practices were under discussion.) So while it's unclear to me whether Lister had picked up on an existing phrase, or was simpy following an existing trope that same-sex relations were more prevalent or more tolerated in Italy, I can't help but think that there's a connection here. And while Blanc's article leaves room for wondering how much of his discussion is genuinely relevant to f/f relations (as opposed to the annoyingly frequent tendency of male authors to assume women's experiences follow men's, and not bother to question the matter), there is no doubt that Lister is specifically discussing women.
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