In this provocative work, Stephanie Malia Hom offers readers a detailed history of mass tourism in Italy as well as a theoretical analysis of the significance of ‘destination Italy’. As defined by Hom, ‘destination Italy’ refers to Italy as a powerful imaginary born of mass tourism situated in ‘a romanticized past’ among ‘vague ideas of tradition and authenticity’ which ‘emerges in the present day as a symbolic respite from the stratifying forces of globalization in the age of late capitalism’ (p. 6).

The book consists of an introduction followed by three sections – ‘Texts’, ‘Practices’ and ‘Spaces’ – and a brief conclusion. In the introduction, Hom defines ‘destination Italy’ and explains that the book strives to convince academia to take the study of tourism more seriously. A significant portion of the introduction is also dedicated to a discussion of how ‘Italy is inherently linked to both the modern and the postmodern’ (p. 16) and the country’s status as a ‘postmodern construct’ (p. 8). A key concept is Hom’s assertion, which runs throughout the book, that the Italian state is, paradoxically, both made and unmade. Here, Hom draws on the famous statement attributed to Massimo D’Azeglio and explores the ‘belatedness, backwardness, and lack’ (p. 54) it presumes about the existence and/or non-existence of the Italian state.

The ‘Texts’ section of the book focuses on guidebooks. Chapter 1 outlines the history of the guidebook and its relationship to the construction of Hom’s vision of ‘destination Italy’, while Chapter 2 analyses how the guidebook texts (in addition to postcards) represent and construct the idea of Italy using various stereotypical tropes. The section on ‘Practices’ contains three chapters which examine the various points of contact between organisations and companies such as Thomas Cook’s tours, the Touring Club Italiano, and the Fascist-era Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro; different types of transportation and lodging like highways and hotels; and the creation and maintenance of the idea of the nation from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Most notably, Hom touches on the post-Risorgimento period, the Fascist ventennio, and the ‘economic miracle’, and connects major organisations and developments in mass tourism to national concerns. At the end of this section, Hom raises the issue of low-cost airlines and other accelerated package tours that, she argues, ‘compress’ the holiday experience and serve to bring destination Italy ‘firmly into the realm of the postmodern’ (p. 24), which is the subject of the book’s third and final section, ‘Spaces’.

This section’s first chapter addresses locations outside Italy that attempt to simulate an Italian environment and experience: The Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Mediterranean Harbor at the Tokyo DisneySea theme park, the Mercato shopping mall in Dubai, and a housing community called Sorrento at Dublin Ranch in California. In this chapter, Hom contends that these types of spaces draw on fantasies of authenticity and tradition, and thus reflect a longing for a time of pre-globalisation. However, this longing, Hom reminds us, is complex and contradictory, since each example the author discusses ‘simultaneously embodies and disavows the excess consumption that defines social taste and distinction in the present day’ (p. 158). In perhaps the book’s most bold assertion, Hom further argues that ‘hyperreal Italy not only assuages the buyer’s remorse often associated with such consumption but also disavows the individual guilt of being associated with, and an instrument for, the unjust articulations of state, market and citizenship that comprise the globalised neoliberal order’ (p. 158). The section’s second chapter brings the discussion of hyperreal Italy back within the borders of the country itself and focuses on souvenirs, theme parks and shopping malls (what Hom calls ‘domestic simulacra’). In the conclusion, Hom proposes several avenues for future thought and research in terms of both questions about resistance to neoliberalism as well as particular places such as the Fascist colonial-era Fiera di Tripoli.

The book’s strengths are many: ample concrete data on tourism in Italy since the mid-nineteenth century; an engagement with the larger field of tourism studies as it relates to Italy; an original focus on economics and globalisation, the interrogation of the term authenticity; close readings and analysis of guidebooks and other historical documents like postcards, coupons, and souvenirs; and compelling claims about a connection between the formation of the Italian state and the discourses of travel and tourism. Additionally, the inclusion of passages in which the author employs a first-person narrative works well in concert with the historical facts and postmodern theory. While some of the historical information at times seems compressed and a few of the author’s assertions, particularly in the sections on postmodernity, might benefit from additional evidence, the book’s originality and breadth of scholarship eclipse these minor criticisms. This exciting book will be an important resource for a wide range of scholars interested in topics such as the history, theory, and economics of tourism; the legacy of The Grand Tour; the construction of national identity in post-Risorgimento Italy; and modern and postmodern architecture.