Never been able to understand why Italians are so down on their country. I spent a week there a couple of years ago, mostly travelling by train. Italians I had spoken to had me believing I should be bracing myself for North Eritrea in terms of infrastructure, police corruption, and so on... the reality is that it feels just like France. Admittedly I never went south of Rome...
It's a latin thing. I'm Portuguese, and we're also devastatingly critical of our country. Talking to a French colleague yesterday, he also bemoaned the negativity of his countrymen. Spanish people also tend to be suffer from the same problem. I wish I knew how to push people into constructive criticism.
The opinion I have of my own country, I admit, is overly critical, however all I stated here is mostly "objective" facts (as far as objective I can be, which is still biased).
And yes, if you travel in the north-center as a tourist you're probably going to see a more sunny side of Italy. As somebody who lives in the country, however, it's far too easy to see everything in a negative light. Especially in the south where these common infrastructures are often missing, broken or very uncomfortable (speaking about trains of course)
