This paper analyses Rimini’s tourism development from the first half of the XIX° century to the present days. In sections 2-6 we will present the different stages of growth and the developing of a new image and kind of holiday while in sections 7-9 we will focus on 3 case-studies which can shed some light on the organisational model and on the imitation of foreign technology and exemples. To sum up very often Rimini’s entrepreneurs have copied foreign models and imported new kind of amusements and services. However they never forgot to customize foreign models to Italian tastes. The result was an original mix between Italian style and foreign models.