What a banal question. An inane question even. They're not necessarily banal or inane for the obvious politically correct reasons although that might well be true too. It's questionable whether is such a thing as 'an Italian'. The country was only created about 140 years ago. As a state, it's even younger than the US and the people are fiercely regionalist.
It's true that they love their food and their wine but there's more to it than that. If you've never been out to eat in a restaurant with a group of Italians, you should. Can you imagine going to a good restaurant and arguing with the chef about how this, that or the other should be cooked? The Italians will. Vociferously ... and the chef doesn't take offence. Why would he? Would you drive clear across Rome for a cup of decent coffee? The Italians will. Would you do the same for decent ice cream. Absolutely.
Their curses are real curses. They don't just call you names. When they tell you to go away, they tell you to go and commit sodomy with your mother. One of the worst things you can call a fella is a cuckold. They put curses on your dead ancestors, the fella who rings the bells at your funeral and the fella who saves you on your deathbed. They implore the Gods to kill you or to throw away your blood. These are invoke only rarely though. More often than not they simply curse misery or the saint of nothing - I have to admit that I've only ever heard any of these used in jest and never in anger.
They've got their 'Sun readers' as well. As a generalization, it is fair to say that here is real animosity between the north and the south. So much so that there is a political party (Lega Nord) whose principal policy is cutting the south (below Rome) adrift to fend for themselves. My impression is that these people constitute a vociferous minority but that may be because of the type of people I mix with and could be a totally false impression.
In the UK the scapegoats are the Poles, the Portuguese or the Romanians. In Italy it's the Albanians and the North Africans. Their complaints about immigrants are no different to the complaints we hear among readers of the Mail, the Express and the Sun. Their politicians are as bent as ours are. They have the same love-hate relationship with the yanks (Amerdicani) as the Brits do. The rich are just as filthy and the masses just as unwashed as they are in the UK.
This is a country where they have two police forces - one a militia (carabinieri (the men who carry carbine rifles)) and one civilian (polizia) - and where they fear the tax police (Guardia di Finanze), who carry .38s and sub machine guns, more than they fear the police. When people find out that I'm a 'finanziere' (a tax collector), you can see the blood drain from their faces. I have to reassure them that 'i finanzieri' in the UK are peace loving people. We don't get a .38. The only thing we get given to do our job is a pen and piece of paper.
What does it mean to be Italian? I have absolutely no idea.
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