You have almost certainly seen it, even if you have never set foot in the country: a sky of a blue that does not quite occur in nature and a sea below it to match; and then umbrella pines leaning in from one edge; a whitewashed village climbing a hill; a young woman in local costume smiling out at you.
Across the top, in tall confident capitals, a single word: ITALIA. Down in a corner, small but insistent, four more letters: ENIT. This is the Italy of the travel poster, and for the better part of a century it has been doing a remarkable job: teaching the rest of the world how to picture an entire country.
