Recensione a Luciano Maffi and Martino Lorenzo Fagnani, Disability and Tourism in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Italy, Abingdon-New York: Routledge, 2021. Pp. 240. £36.99. ISBN 9780367771836.

Within the history of disability, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are known to have constituted a major turning point across much of the Western world. In Italy, exemplary progress was made in the field of medicine, with the emergence of a new interest in the aetiology and classification of disabilities, the prevention and treatment of disease, and rehabilitation practices and tools. The period also saw key advances within pedagogy, given the proliferation of educational initiatives for persons with disabilities, although these were implemented in marginalised settings. Similar dynamics played out in the tourism sector, as is extensively explored by historians Luciano Maffi and Martino Lorenzo Fagnani in their volume. The authors, adopting a perspective that combines the history of tourism with the history of disability, examine the ways in which Italy—across the two centuries—catered for the needs of tourists with disabilities, disorders or debilitating illnesses. Based on years of in-depth bibliographical research and meticulous archival investigations, the volume stands out for its original heuristic approach, as reflected in the various angles from which its topic is treated.