Un pioniere dell'alta hôtellerie: Lorenzo Bertolini (1832-1905)

This article presents the entrepreneur biography of an Italian pioneer in the field of tourism: Lorenzo Bertolini. His experience is of particular interest for two reasons. Firstly, he contributed to spread the culture of hospitality and to shape new organizational and managerial models for luxury hotels. Secondly, he was a successful businessman: a self-made man capable to build the initial core of a hotel chain that his sons further developed successfully. Despite a reorganization in the following period, Bertolini’s descendants still operate in the field of luxury hotels, and thus represent one of the most ancient and long-lived entrepreneurial dynasties in the tourism sector.