Touring Club Italiano

The Touring Club Italiano (TCI) (in English, Touring Club of Italy) is the major Italian national tourist organization.

Touring Club Italiano magazine

The Touring Club Ciclistico Italiano (TCCI) was founded on November 8, 1894 by a group of bicyclists to promote the values of cycling and travel; its founding president was Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli. It published its first maps in 1897. By 1899, it had 16,000 members. With the new century, it promoted tourism in all its forms – including auto tourism – and the appreciation of the natural and urban environments. Under Fascism, starting in 1937, it was forced to Italianize its name to the Consociazione Turistica Italiana.[1]

Photo of Ancona by Paolo Monti for the Touring Club Italiano

Through the years, it has produced a wide variety of maps, guidebooks, and more specialized studies, and is known for its high standard of cartography. Its detailed road maps of Italy are published at 1:200,000, one per region.

Its most prestigious guidebooks are the "Guide Rosse" (not to be confused with the Michelin Red Guides), which cover Italy in 23 highly detailed volumes printed on bible paper; the TCI also produces a wide variety of other guides to Italy. During the Fascist period, the red guides were also extended to cover Italian colonies and overseas territories.

The TCI also publishes translations of foreign guidebooks such as the French Guide Bleu.