The bus had been making its way back to the city of La Paz from the Salar de Uyuni salt flats when the accident happened.
The three Italians were named by La Stampa as 30-year-old Lorenzo Licciardi, from Ancona, and Franco Cembran, 53, and his partner Rinalda Di Stefano, 50, both from Rome. Three other Italians were reportedly among the 24 injured in the accident.
Licciardi, an avid kite surfer, was an only child who had sent his parents and girlfriend text messages about the “trip of a lifetime” and the “wonderful” places he had seen, La Stampa reported.
Di Stefano was a geologist said to be passionate about travel.
“Franco followed,” Franco Cembran's family told La Stampa. “It was one of the first times he did so, if not the first. They left happily for Bolivia. It could have happened anywhere. We are shocked.”
Bolivian police said ten people died, eight of them foreigners, while 24 people were injured.
Among the other victims was Kurt Steel, an Australian government media advisor, and a Canadian. The driver was also killed.
The 24 injured included Germans, Swiss, Canadians, Chileans and Peruvians
The accident happened early on Saturday in between La Paz and the Bolivian capital of Sucre.
An investigation is underway to determine how the accident occurred.
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