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Italians Angry at Mafia Slight in iPhone App

Italians Angry at Mafia Slight in iPhone App

Italy’s tourism minister is angry at Apple over an app that suggests the country is the home of “pizza, mafia, pasta and scooters,” The (London) Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

The What Country app — which can be downloaded to iPads, iPhones and iPods — stereotypes countries around the world with pictures and a few short words.

Italy is characterized with a picture of a road sign saying “Mafia parking only” and the tagline “pizza, mafia, pasta and scooters.”

Italian tourism minister Michela Vittoria Brambilla, said the 99 cent app is “offensive and unacceptable” and demanded it be removed from the iTunes online store. “Italy is a beacon in the world for its history, culture and style. I cannot allow our country to be discredited by a criminal organization.”

The outrage at the app follows similar concerns from Italians about the way the country was portrayed in Julia Roberts’ new film “Eat, Pray, Love.”

The film, about a woman’s journey of self discovery, shows her as she travels to Italy, where she spends most of her time feasting on gelati and pasta.

The newspaper La Repubblica wrote, “It rains spaghetti, the Italians are always gesticulating and following foreign girls, shouting vulgarities — but then getting engaged to a nice housewife to please their domineering mothers. And there’s lots of pizza.”

An Apple spokesman in Italy declined to comment on the What Country app.

[Thanks: http://www.myfoxdc.com]

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