Mediterranei italiani. Il Mediterraneo nelle scritture di viaggio dell’Italia preunitaria

Abstract

In the Mediterranean of the Nineteenth century the Italian peninsula seems to have played a marginal role, in which the political fragmentation did not help. Starting from the unification, the numerous studies that tried to rebuild the Italian presence beyond national borders have emphasized that the Italians who crossed the ancient seawater in those sixty years were mostly exiles, escaping conservative persecution. In these cases not only men travelled, but also ideas. But those studies also tried to build Italy's Mediterranean history – of which the “excellent” nineteenth-century migrations had been key steps – with the aim of legitimizing the Italian presence in the mare nostrum. Looking at the Peninsula’s Mediterranean perspective, this essay wants to investigate – through travel writings – in what terms that space was experienced by the travellers before the unification.