Photo above: Former TV personality Paolo Brosio by Pasquale BoveThis article originally appeared on VICE ItalyEvery summer during the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s, the tourist resort of Rimini was the most decadently Italian place in the world. There was no banking crisis or Euro yet; Silvio Berlusconi and his bikini-clad TV hostesses had free reign of his commercial TV stations; club kids populated the legendary Cocoricò nightclub; and Federico Fellini's burial there was a national affair.
Annons
In 1983, the first outlet of Italy's first fast food chain, Italy&Italy, opened in the city, becoming emblematic of the cultural changes the country had gone through in a relatively short time. The success of the chain didn't go unnoticed – some years later, McDonald's bought Italy&Italy and turned every branch into an Maccy Ds.Rimini-based photojournalist Pasquale Bove spent years documenting all the craziness of summers in the resort between the 1980s and the early 2000s. Photographer Luca Santese went through Bove's archive of over 200,000 photos and selected a number to include in the 2016 book Italy&Italy. It's a collection of euphoric photos of town fairs, partying TV starlets turned politicians and (partially) naked people making the most of their summer. See a few of the images below:
The 150th anniversary of the opening of Rimini's first beach resort.
A woman posing in front of a police van.
Diners at Italy&Italy, Italy's first fast food restaurant.
The result of a police bust.
The best butt contest in a club.
Football fans.
Actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta having some gelato.
Federico Fellini's funeral in 1993.
A club kid in Rimini.
An awesome party.
