The Italian Ministry of Tourism has faced ridicule after it released an official promotional video to attract tourists to Italy, which showed footage of people in Slovenia drinking Slovenian wine.

The video, part of a €9 million campaign created by telecommunications group Armando Testa, was ridiculed on social media even before the footage of the video was revealed to have been filmed outside of Italy.

Entitled “Open to Meraviglia”, the video features a digitized figure of Venus, a symbol of Italian art, depicted in Sandro Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus.

comunque il promotional video di #Opentomeravilla mi fa vergognare di essere italiano…#santanche #Botticelli #Venus pic.twitter.com/dSG7Ju2k7g

— Sirio (@siriomerenda) April 21, 2023

The “Modern Venus” wears a miniskirt, eats pizza, and represents some of Italy’s top tourist attractions, such as the Colosseum in Rome or the Cathedral in Florence.

Art critic Tommaso Montanari called the ad campaign a “disgusting” and “vulgar” waste of money, and Italian social media users ridiculed the video.

Some of the shots show a group of young people smiling on a sunny patio and drinking wine in a typical Italian setting.

However, some have noticed that the patio in question is actually in the Čotar region of Slovenia, close to the Italian border, and the bottle on the table says Čotar wine.

Armando Testa was unavailable for comment.

Italy’s Tourism Minister Daniela Sundance, a member of Georgia Prime Minister Meloni’s far-right Italian Adelphi Party, called critics of the video “snobbish” and said the portrayal of Venus as an influencer was aimed at attracting young people.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.

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