Italy and digital divide

Italian situation concerning digital divide has been discussed for years and have been the center of long discussions. The situation is fairly easy to comprehend if we look at the map of italy and its territorial diversity. Along the italian boot, we can then encounter mountains, hills, valleys and vast areas where people live semi-isolated from urban agglomerates. Although this contributes on making the country pretty and worth visiting, it can as well be a source of numerous problem. In fact the problems associated with connections have been common in the whole italian territory since the government decided to spread the use of the telephone. For many years Italians payed a specific tax to allow people coming from less accessible regions of Italy have the possibility to connect to the telephone line.Through the years the whole country could finally connect to the phone line but the costs of keeping it working have always been high because of the physical impediments.
Jumping ahead few years, we can see Italy now facing the same problems of 50 years ago with internet connections. Although certain areas in the mountains and certain islands are trying to connect to with new wireless technology, there are still some which are uncovered with broadband technology.
Although these issues are being solved, the main issue concerning digital divide in Italy is certainly connected with a very "offline" culture. according to a recent study, approximately 47% of italian population does not use internet on a regular basis. This number should be attributed to a scarse digital education and might represent a serious concern for the future of the country.