This book is the first comprehensive scientific reconstruction of the captivity experience of Allied prisoners in Italy. Between 1940 and 1943, around 70,000 Allied soldiers, mostly British, were imprisoned in Italy, that was unable to fulfil its duties as a holding power, and the misery suffered by its citizens also had serious consequences for the prisoners This work outlines the various camps in Italy and examines prisoners? daily life. It recounts also the largely unexplored topic of violations of international prisoner law by the Italians and, above all, of war crimes perpetrated by them. This book has been endorsed by Bob Moore as "an exemplary piece of scholarship that covers every aspect of the Italian prisoner-of-war regime" and by Paul Corner as "A remarkable story, charting the many aspects of British and Commonwealth servicemen in fascist Italy during the Second World War".