A Grand Hôtel Between the Liberal Age and Fascism in Italy: Grand Hôtel du Vésuve in Naples

This study reconstructs the history of the current Grand Hotel Vesuvio, which opened its doors in 1882 and is still one of the most prestigious hotels in the city of Naples. Its original design was an amalgam of the characteristics of mid-nineteenth century Mediterranean tourism, dominated by scientism, antiquarianism, climatism, and romanticism with the characteristics of tourism during the second industrialization, which incorporated American influences that spread throughout Europe through the English and French experience, mediated by the city of Paris. The analysis demonstrates how, on a cultural level, the hotel, in comparison with the standardization of modernity during the second industrial revolution, lost its original and specific Mediterranean characteristics, including the significant influence of the ancient world (Pompeian style). Furthermore, it shows that the hotel industry increased its economic value in the context of the first globalization but in the subsequent phases of the First World War, dictatorship, and the global economic crisis, entered into a long and slow decline that lasted until the 1980s. This study is based on documentation preserved in the hotel’s historical archive, as well as on the most recent publications and scientific literature dedicated to grand hotels.