Alpitour turns 70 with 'Italy on Vacation'

(ANSA) - Rome, June 21 - ANSA and Alpitour have teamed up for a photo exhibition celebrating the leading Italian tour company's 70th anniversary.
    The exhibit, titled "Italy on Vacation", features photos from ANSA's archives that tell the story of how Italians have spent their leisure time on holiday over the past seven decades.
    Images that conjure up Italians on holiday include the mass vacation exodus for the August 15 Ferragosto holiday, with mini Fiat 500s jam-packed with luggage up to the roof; foosball matches with jukeboxes playing in the background; and for those who stayed in the city, picnics in Milan's Piazza San Babila with fully set tables, in a futile attempt to escape the summer heat.
    Along with the exhibition at VOI Donna Camilla Savelli Hotel in Rome is a commemorative book that contains images from the ANSA archive, a collection of photographic heritage going back to the 1940s that includes more than 7.5 million shots and has been deemed of great historical interest by the Italian Culture Ministry.
    Alpitour Group CEO Gabriele Burgio said the show and the book are ways to remember things such as vacations taken as children.
    "With my parents and my siblings, we went to Forte dei Marmi in Florence, all of us squeezed into the 600; it was truly a journey. Now you can go there for dinner. Of course, vacations have changed over the past 70 years, and now there are many different types with different objectives. You can even travel alone. But it's still, and always, the most wonderful time of the year," Burgio said.
    ANSA Editor-in-Chief Luigi Contu said ANSA and Alpitour have "parallel paths" in that they were founded in 1945 and 1947, respectively.
    "They crossed thanks to the power of images. Looking over the photos from our endless archive is always a wonderful experiment of memory and reflection. The 1950s, the tables in the centre of Milan for Ferragosto, or virtual reality on the beaches in the Maldives, vacation is almost just the backdrop - at the heart is a changing Italy".
    The story of "Italy on Vacation" begins in 1947, when Lorenzo Isoardi founded Alpi (Alpitour's first name) in Cuneo, in the region of Piedmont, in a small office under the arcades.
    In the same months, the ANSA images show Italians rediscovering their free time following a fearful time of bombings: women sunbathing on Capri just off the "faraglioni" rock formations, and the trend of riding water bicycles on Milan's artificial lake, the Idroscalo.
    Alpi organises trips by coach and train for large events such as the Holy Year in Rome in 1950 and the World Cup in Switzerland in 1954.
    Italy increasingly becomes a tourist destination thanks to its weather, food, and art, with 11 million visitors in 1955.
    In Rimini and Milano Marittima, room and board costs 1,300 lire, while "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck on a Vespa becomes the poster child for Italy in the world.
    The 1960s were a time of great divas, from Sophia Loren posing with her luggage, Brigitte Bardo in Cortina, Jackie Kennedy in Amalfi, and Stefania Sandrelli in Viareggio.
    Alpi becomes Alpitour in 1967 and organises the first "intercontinental air cruises" to the USA, Mexico and Canada.
    The 1980s were known by the famous catch phrase from Alpitour television spots: "No Alpitour? Aye yai yai!" And now, in 2017, vacations are increasingly technological and social.
    As for the future, tourism growth is certain, according to Culture Ministry Undersecretary Dorina Bianchi, who said tourism in Italy is expected to increase 4.3% next year.
    "I don't think other industries can boast as much, despite the fact that efforts are still parceled out and there isn't a dedicated ministry," she said.