Monocultural past?
Italy is not a single country even today. People 200km apart can’t understand each other if they would speak their local language.
People hate each other even within the same region (e.g., Pisa vs Livorno).
There is quite a lot of hate and discrimination even between South and North, between cities (Naples/Milan/Rome), especially due to internal migrations (many people go from South to Rome to study, or north to work).
One of the major parties (today) rebranded as a nationalist party just recently, but is still called “north league” and was a secessionist party until 10 years ago or so (probably still is to some extent).
Everyone in Italy is absolutely aware of local culture and differences, and Italians have a very vague idea of what Italy is as a country. The national identity is really weird, and often people feel more part of their local heritage than Italian (e.g., Sicilian or roman).
Also dunking on Italy is basically a national sport, almost everyone in Italy is convinced that abroad “things work, not like here”. However, people get protective when an outgroup criticizes Italy, that’s when you get a “nationalist” perspective. This is quite common for many groups though.
Monocultural past? Italy is not a single country even today. People 200km apart can’t understand each other if they would speak their local language. People hate each other even within the same region (e.g., Pisa vs Livorno). There is quite a lot of hate and discrimination even between South and North, between cities (Naples/Milan/Rome), especially due to internal migrations (many people go from South to Rome to study, or north to work).
One of the major parties (today) rebranded as a nationalist party just recently, but is still called “north league” and was a secessionist party until 10 years ago or so (probably still is to some extent).
Everyone in Italy is absolutely aware of local culture and differences, and Italians have a very vague idea of what Italy is as a country. The national identity is really weird, and often people feel more part of their local heritage than Italian (e.g., Sicilian or roman).
Also dunking on Italy is basically a national sport, almost everyone in Italy is convinced that abroad “things work, not like here”. However, people get protective when an outgroup criticizes Italy, that’s when you get a “nationalist” perspective. This is quite common for many groups though.