Abstract

The article comments on the will of the newly born influential Italian newspaper to contribute to «build the Italians» by promoting and disseminating a better knowledge of the domestic geographic, landscape, artistic and socio-political reality. This explains the constant attention to Milan - seen as the best expression of the modernization of the nation -, and the decision to send «travelling correspondents» in the various provinces to report on the existing state of things but at the same time to eulogize the extraordinary natural landscapes and historic monuments and artworks, without overlooking the dramatic backwardness of the Southern regions and of rural Italy.