My Rome Prize project explores the phenomenon of mass tourism and how it has shaped the modern Italian nation-state since the mid-nineteenth century. I trace the evolution of Italy-as-destination in my eponymous book manuscript, starting with rhetorical constructions of Italy in guidebooks, to their implementation in tourist practices, and finally, their physical incarnations as simulacra outside the peninsula, creating a globalized Italy without Italians separate from national territory. Indeed, Italy’s identity as a modern nation has long been intimately bound up with its identity as a destination.