The aim of the article is to investigate the profile of comparative education in Italy, highlighting those elements that have characterised its development in relation to the cultural and political features of the country. This approach inevitably involves the comparison of Italy's specific particularities to those of other countries in the north and the south of Europe, in order to understand whether there are certain features that may place Italian comparative education within the wider framework of the Mediterranean area. What is involved in making a comparative analysis of the profile of a discipline and, more particularly, of comparative education in Italy, concentrating principally on the geopolitical context of its development? What is it that typifies the feature or features that make Italian comparative education quintessentially Italian? What are the main sources of comparative education in Italy, and what are the disciplines with which it continues to interact today? The article argues that in the wider framework of Western comparative education, Italy's voice, rooted in a plural tradition and open to new developments, is an original and important contribution for thinking critically this field of study.