Why nobody mentioned the hatred between Northern Italians and South Italians? The former blame the latters for the country failure(s), and apparently this theory find consensus even among the US participants of this forum. I'd move to set this straight on Wikipedia, once and for all.
I guess I all depend on how far you keep the magnifying glass from the map.
And I am not offended: Italy is truly rotten to the bone as far as corruption goes, which is also one of the many reasons why I left.
The only good thing there was the food, then they started altering it to make a bigger profit.
Ever read about tomato cultivation in Sicily next to dumpsters?
Or about the veggies that grow in Campania where they don't even have legal dumpsters and all the bad stuff penetrates into the soil?
Did you know they found out they where adding white ceramics to dairy products to make them look whiter? This happened near Salerno, in Campania.
And what about that taralli plant (taralli are salty snacks) where they used animal food to save on raw ingredients?
I do really think there are some bad Italians out there, and they inevitably spread some of that bad. But there are also the goods, we just don't remember them.