Religious Tourism and the Italian Economy, 1870—1950

Riccardo Semeraro holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Management from the University of Verona, Italy, and is currently a Research Fellow in Economic History at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Brescia, Italy. In 2015–2016, he was a visiting researcher at the Department of Applied Economic Analysis at the University of Alicante, Spain, and continues to collaborate with its scholars on comparative studies of Italy and Spain in a broader European and global framework. His research spans business, financial, and tourism history, focusing on socioeconomic resilience, the role of the Catholic Church in Italian economic development, and the evolution of mass tourism. Luciano Maffi is Associate Professor of Economic and Global History at the University of Parma, Italy. He also teaches Economic History at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. He previously held academic positions as Lecturer at the University of Salento, and as Research Fellow at Bocconi University in Milan, the University of Genoa, and the University of Brescia. In 2014–2015, he was a Visiting Researcher at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. His main research interests lie in economic, financial, and social history, with a particular focus on private banking. Giovanni Gregorini is Full Professor of Economic History and Head of the Department of History and Philology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy, where he teaches Economic History and Business History. His research interests focus on public finance in the 17th-century State of Milan; the history of the Lombard banking and finance sector between the 19th and 20th centuries; and Italian and European economic history in the second half of the 20th century. He has edited the proceedings of several national and international conferences, as well as numerous publications on the development of local economic systems, particularly in the areas of Brescia and Bergamo. In recent years, his work has also explored the economic and financial history of Italian charities and religious congregations.

• Chapter 1. Tourism and Catholic Pilgrimages.- Chapter 2. Economic Development, the Catholic Church, and Tourism in Late Modern and Contemporary Italy.- Chapter 3. The Foundations of Modern Italian Pilgrimages, 1870–1950.- Chapter 4. The Holy Land: Journey to the Roots, 1870–1939.- Chapter 5. Lourdes: A New Pilgrimage, 1870–1950.- Chapter 6. Rome: Pilgrims as Jubilee Tourists, 1870–1939.- Chapter 7. Rome: The Eternal City as an International Capital, 1950.- Chapter 8. Conclusions.