Guide to 53 expeditions from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Information on each expedition includes maps, photographs, texts and quotes from the explorer's journey diaries.

Translation of: Esploratori. Includes index.

Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke and the search for the source of the Nile -- Ernest Doudart de Lagrée and Francis Garnier and the ruins of Angkor Wat -- David Livingstone and the "missionary road" -- Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs among oases and temples -- Henry Morton Stanley in "Darkest Africa" -- Timothy O'Sullivan recording the Wild West -- Challenger exploring the deep -- Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky, mapmaker to the Czar -- Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, peaceful conqueror -- Teober Maler and the Mayan civilization -- John William Lindt in Australia and Oceania -- Vittorio Bottego in East Africa -- Fridtjof Nansen and Fram -- Vittorio Sella, mountaineering photographer -- Auguste Jean-Marie Pavie, peaceful colonist -- Isabella Bird Bishop in the Middle Kingdom -- Jean-Baptiste Marchand from the Congo to the White Nile -- Francis Younghusband and the "Great Game" -- Alfred Wegener and continental drift -- Robert Peary and Matthew Henson on the top of the world -- Jean-Baptiste Charcot, pourquoi-pas? -- Sven Hedin on the Silk Road -- Roald Amundsen and the Northwest Passage -- Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole -- Robert Falcon Scott and Discovery -- The last journey of Robert Falcon Scott -- Katherine Routledge on Easter Island -- Gertrude Bell, queen without a crown -- Cndido Rondon and Theodore Roosevelt in the rain forest -- Ernest Shackleton and Endurance -- Ferdinand von Zeppelin and Hugo eckener, the age of the airship -- Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings -- Rosita Forbes and Ahmed Hassanein Bey at the Kufrah Oasis -- Alexandra David-Néel in the heart of Tibet -- André Citroën's Croisière Noire across Africa -- Charles Lindbergh in a single bound -- Albert H. MacCarthy and the icy giant -- Umberto Nobile and the red tent -- Aimone di Savola in the heart of the Karakorams -- La Croisière Jaune in the footsteps of Marco Polo -- Ardito Desio in the world's largest desert -- Freya Stark, an intrepid solitary -- Théodore Monod, a life in the desert -- Hans Hass among the fish -- Maria Reiche and the enigma of Nazca -- Edmund Hillary and the world mother goddess -- Thor Heyerdahl and Kon-Tiki -- Challenging K2 -- Nautilus under the North Pole -- Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the first man in space -- Neil Armstrong in the Sea of Tranquility -- Apollo 13 and the Moon.