Accidental tourists: Yanks in Rome, 1944-1945

Although tourism is usually considered intentional, sometimes people accidentally' find themselves in alluring places with time on their hands. Such was the case for tens of thousands of American GIs stationed or, more commonly, on leave in Rome after the Allied liberation in early June, 1944, until the war ended in Europe in May, 1945. This essay considers that eventful year in the lives of many American soldiers, drawing on guides produced by the Allied forces, interviews, government documents, memoirs, accounts in the military and commercial American press, and fictional representations in novels and films produced by Americans and Italians. The American military not only attempted to control soldiers' tourism, but all their leisure activities in Rome. Longstanding tourist agendas were followed, expanded, and contracted to respond to the exigencies of a military occupation.