Originally Posted by SunnyMeadow

Yes and from rarely substantiated hooey from Italians, who brag about their poxy country as if it was the best in so many ways.

We are all told that Italy is the height of fashion, cuisine and style, yet even these things are mostly unsubstantiated flash & fluff and are mostly better elsewhere.
For example, I have yet to have a decent meal in Italy regardless of where I have been and I have met a few people in my life who have also been to Italy and surprisingly for me came to the same conclusion.
This was the most surprising thing about Italy for me.

I also know a couple of friends who are living there (about 18 months so far) because of their jobs and they tell me the same thing, including such hair-raising discoveries as defects in buildings design which resulted in being able to see straight through to the outside through the "bricks" in my friends rented home!

In addition, have you ever tried to do business with Italians if you are not an Italian? They make you pull your hair out!
Have you tried doing to get anything done with them in August? No, coz they're all on the beach.

Some people will know that the Italian "psyche" is hugely arrogant (even more so than the French) but what few non-Italian people are told about Italians is that they have a nasty side to them that you cannot know about however long you know them - and that is that many of them are plain & simple thieves & essentially corrupt, always on the make in whatever way they can, even in the street in plain daylight.

The truth is that the whole nation is run by a festering mix of a feudal system/casino, changing so-called governments every 3 months etc., and that these governments are bought and sold like Rome was, by iffy & slimy characters. History is there for all to read and we know what the TV is like.

I know that the Low Trust way of life is much worse in some underdeveloped countries, but Italy has been a part of and had the benefit of European evolution and development for a very long time, yet it remains one of the most tricky countries in all sorts of ways and in my view, one to stay clear off if at all possible.

All the Ferraris, the Durum wheat & tomatoes-dominated cuisine, the somewhat vulgar fashions and interior design and even a bit of Pavarotti etc., doesn't make up for all the serious & structural deficiencies that plague this whole flipping country. I seriously don't know how they get even the basics done, even partially right.

While I can believe that not 100% of the population is a thief or benefiting from theft/fraud/corruption etc., I don't know who isn't from who is and given the widespread propensity, its safer to stay away from the lot of 'em, in my view.

Originally Posted by duffer

He's from the planet Uranus.

Originally Posted by TestaRossa

No, I'd guess Texas......

Originally Posted by jdr

Texarse

Originally Posted by jdr

Under a bridge, but do they have bridges in Texarse ?