The other Adriatico. The first steps of tourism in Abruzzo and Molise

At the beginning of the 20th century, the tourism industry in the Abruzzo and Molise area had laid its foundations. However, it was only after the first world war and especially during the fascist period that these early investments started to become significant, bringing a new structure to the waterfront of many local towns and increasing the number of hotels and other accommodation and/or recreational facilities. Using descriptive and, to a lesser degree, quantitative sources, including iconographic analysis, the aim of this paper is to outline the first steps in seaside tourism, attempting to reconstruct the socio-economic profile of the entrepreneurs involved, the source of their capital, their marketing strategies, their customers, the internal and external relationships within the region, and the relationships between private enterprise and local policies. Despite this research still being at an early stage, the paper also proposes a method for developing a grid of inquiry that can be applied to the many Italian coastal areas that, while not belonging to the group of the best known seaside resorts, were still part of a widespread and positive tourist experience and were instrumental in the tourism socialisation process at a national level.