I have often said that Italy does three things really well: food, fashion and football. Football, of course, being what Americans call soccer. This may be a simplification, but there’s some truth to it.

But I have never joked too much about the Mafia, and perhaps that’s all for the best. Italians – and Sicilians especially – don’t all like being labeled as gangsters, and rightly so.

Perhaps then it’s no surprise that the Minister of Tourism, Michela Brambilla, is not too pleased with an application for iPads and iPhones called What Country.

While What Country is not meant to be taken too seriously, it labels Italy as a country of “pizza, Mafia, pasta and scooters.”

Brambilla was not the only politician offended by the app. “The Mafia isn’t a Hollywood film, but a brutal reality that continues to kill,” said Laura Garavini of the Anti-Mafia Commission.

Brambilla can at least take consolation in the fact that despite the recession and weak dollar, tourism in Italy is up. So the pizza and pasta must be good.