La guidistica locale per “riavere Roma in un solo colpo d’occhio”. Verso la costruzione di una (digital) StoryMap della nuova Capitale d’Italia” (con la story map a cura di Luisa Spagnoli e Lucia Varasano).

Traveling with local guidebooks to «get Rome back at a glance». Toward building a (digital) StoryMap of the new Capital of Italy – This study examines a selection of guidebooks of Rome published in the decade before and after the Unification of Italy. Although guidebooks are not travelogues and are expected to be more objective, they can still be useful for geographical analysis, serving as valuable tools not only for investigating the landscape and places of the past in their physicality but also, and above all, for reconstructing the cultural and social atmosphere of the time. For this, to narrate the physical-structural changes that Rome has undergone under these years, the events, the cultural, social and political atmosphere, the tourism publications of the second half of the 19th century represents a source worthy of attention. Guidebooks for “new” travelers, in fact, offer a variety of perspectives. The City, modes of travel, and guidebooks have undergone significant changes. The latter now take a more scientific approach, providing precise knowledge of places from a physical-geographical point of view, and more accurate details on modes of travel and gathering of information. In general, these types of guides remain a useful resource for a narrative made up of images, stereotypes, and instances that document and, to some extent, formalize authentic clichés. This is the foundation for constructing a digital storymap, to showcase a “Roman topography and Romanness” through which to return the most representative elements of what Rome was going to become.