Since 1894 Touring Club Italiano has been promoting a discovery of Italy focused on the concept of tourism as an important tool for knowledge, culture and economic development.

Italy gradually became an approachable country, also with the contribution of Touring Club Italiano: from the first maps to the first guides, the roadsigns located allover Italy, the magazines and the activities organized.

The Historical Archive is the memory of this journey and it preserves Touring Club Italiano’s identity, with the aim of keeping its history alive to be inspiring for the mission of the association.

The Historical Archive preserves different materials: 350.000 b/w prints about Italy and foreign countries – landscape but also tourism, transport, society, industry – between 1870 and 1970; 30.000 postcards; paper documents about the history of TCI until 1980; sketches and drawings used for magazines’ covers and advertising; all the guides, textbooks, yearbooks, photographic volumes and magazines sent to the members since 1895. A special mention goes to some archivistical materials about cartography, such as original drawing from cartographs and the stones used as matrices for the printing of atlases.

The Historical Archive is involved in different activities to give value to its collection. On Digitouring, the online catalogue of the Historical Archive with storytelling virtual tours based on materials, you can find all the details about the activities.