Touring Club Italiano

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Touring Club Italiano (TCI) is the major Italian national tourist organization.

The TCI was founded on November 8, 1894 by a group of bicyclists to promote the values of cycling and travel. 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.

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.

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