Abstract. In Vincenzo Cardarelli’s travel notes about Moscow and Leningrad (written during his stay in USSR in 1928-1929), one can identify three main descriptive tendencies. First of all, the reference to a predetermined, idealized image of “the other”, which comes from XIX century Russian Literature and touristic stereotypes about the country. Secondly, the recognition of some characteristics of ‘the own’ in “the other”, which allows the author to understand and indicate realia unknown to him. Finally,”the other” is depicted as “inferior” and compared with “the own” through rough, racist judgments by the author, which were unaccustomed even to the fascist intellectuals of that time.