The "comune sentire": Italian historic centres as cultural heritage

The essay traces a brief reconstruction of the way Italy, after its unification, adopted the image of the 'country to be visited' and the 'country of a hundred towns' from the representations foreign travellers produced during the age of Grand Tour. In such a reconstruction the author shows how, below such an enduring image, the country has had to cope with its modernization, its industrialization, and recently the issues related to immigration, trying to balance its long-standing gap between the state and municipalities, and the necessity to give new value to historic centres as, at the same time, the very social inclusive hub of Italian towns as well as the often gentrified and high-income districts.