"Reminiscences", "repositories" e "souvenir" nella guidistica ottocentesca

This article, based on travel guides from the mid-19th century, documents how the word sou venir entered the tourism lexicon with its current meaning only emerging in the 1860s. During the first half of the century, alongside the maturation of tourism, the aristocratic practice of purchasing objects while traveling adapted to new middle-class travelers: travellers and tour ists. This shift catered to their desire to immortalize the travel experience while participating in the rituals of modern consumption, driven by an expanding market. With the industrialization of tourism, the souvenir came to fulfill two needs: on one hand, the traditional purpose of rekin dling personal travel memories; on the other, the affirmation of one’s modernity through the act of consumption. Additionally, the growth of the European middle class and innovations in transportation, which broadened access to travel, created a demand for objects that not only represented the visited locations but were also portable, affordable, and capable of bearing witness to the tourist experience