Arts promotion pries Italians from their TV sets

Italian heritage groups Friday urged the country to turn off the television and soak up its rich culture, offering discounts to those who went to museums and theaters with TV remote control in hand.

“We don’t want to criticize this or that program, we just want people to realize there are other things out there,” said Barbara Specchia of Italian cultural association Esterni. “It’s worrying that for so many Italians television is their only source of information and only form of entertainment.”

Up and down the country, from the Alps to the Mediterranean island of Sicily, dozens of restaurants, museums, bookshops and theaters offered discounts of 20% to 40% to Italians who arrived bearing remote controls.

In Naples, TV addicts willing to miss the latest episode of their favorite soap opera could opt for a bicycle ride around the city sights instead.

“Go out, meet new people, rediscover the city and everything you could be doing during all those hours wasted away in the company of the small screen,” urged an Esterni press release.

Italy’s scores of private and public television channels pump out a diet of soccer matches, soap operas and variety shows featuring scantily clad dancing girls that keep Italians glued to their screens for more than 4.5 hours a day.