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Italy’s “Influencer Venus” is on a digital detox — at precisely the wrong moment.
A Court of Audit in Italy is accusing the government’s Ministry of Tourism of wasting public money with a costly promotional campaign, which suddenly stopped posting online at the height of tourist season.
The “Open to Meraviglia” marketing campaign, which cost nearly €140,000 in taxpayer money, transformed Botticelli’s Venus into a 21st century influencer, who regularly posted on her Instagram account to promote tourism in Italy.
But the Influencer Venus was last spotted active on social media on June 27, more than two months ago, in a picture posing in front of a view of Taormina in Sicily.
Her accounts on other social media sites such as Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter) disappeared, Italian media reported, along with the promotional video posted on YouTube when the campaign was announced.
The disappearance sparked questions from Pio Silvestri, who leads the Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of Audit in the Lazio region.
He started an investigation into the costly tourism project.
Asked about the campaign going AWOL, Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè — from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party — reportedly told La Repubblica at the end of August that the disappearance was not a contract problem, but a “deliberate choice.”
Santanchè said that Influencer Venus will “come back soon.”
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