In tourism, the images have a key role in development of a place as holiday destination mainly because they inspire our imagination. It is the case of Vietnam: several books, but mainly many war movies showed us many fascinating landscapes, so in the western imaginary the country has too often been associated with this kind of image. For this reason, the war has been an important attraction in these years for Vietnam above all for a new form of tourism, 'dark tourism'. Recent trends show foreign visitors to the country constantly growing, with international tourists in 2018 at over 15 million people. More than one million are now arriving from EU countries because European tourists have several practical supports for their visit to Vietnam such as recent developments in the airlines industry or the extension of the visa-waiver scheme. For sure, the great charm wrapping this far eastern country remains the most important reason for its international attraction. This paper examines some travel stories, written by Italian authors from the period after Doi Moi reforms to date. Classifiable in the broader field of travel literature, this study aims to understand changes in the descriptive paradigm during this period in order to identify which are the main touristic attractions today of Vietnam.
