Title: L’impegno della Provincia di Bologna per l’istituzione e lo sviluppo delle colonie estive
Abstract: The article intends to reconstruct the history of the summer camps managed by the Province of Bologna, with particular reference to those set up to host illegitimate and poor children, assisted by the Provincial institute for childhood and motherhood (Ipim). Through the use of documents held in the Historical archive of Bologna Città metropolitana the essay highlights the changes that, from the 1950s to the 1970s, enabled these institutions to go beyond the charitable and health settings, still predominant in the early years of republican Italy, to become extra-school services characterised by increasing qualification on the educational level.