A few years ago, my cable company began to offer international channels (for an extra fee, of course) & to my delight, one of them is RAI International. RAI is the state broadcaster of Italy & the International channel combines programs from all 3 RAI channels. It's been great for me to improve my Italian and keep up with the culture.
One of my favorite shows is Linea Blu ("Blue Line"), a program about the many aspects of the coastline of Italy: regional life, history, nature & conservation, and local cuisine, all with the spectacular backdrops of the Mediterranean & Adriatic. It's all very interesting & educational, but it's really a great tourism promotion even if they didn't quite intend it that way!
RAI International airs a similar program, Linea Verde ("Green Line"), about the inland areas of the various provinces. Both shows make me wonder why no one in this country has come up with a similar idea for programming - even though we have several travel shows here & even a channel supposedly devoted to travel, in my humble opinion the programming leaves a lot to be desired. One of my long-standing gripes about our travel TV is that, with rare exceptions, it's all about the hosts (and as we all learned as children, if you can't say anything nice perhaps you shouldn't say anything at all). Travel programs are supposed to be about the location, right?
It might be a cultural difference - perhaps we Americans are just attracted to extreme personalities. We do have travel shows with very good hosts who put the location first but they just don't seem to get the air time that the "stars" do, and that's a shame.
P.S. : the photo of Capri isn't from RAI - it was taken by a friend of my father (not a professional).
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