Even if Europe is almost without frontiers, with a shared currency and a common future, the Italians still feel that their Northern European neighbours are very different. We respect and appreciate their characteristic orderliness, and consider them as paragons to follow. But we know that we will never be like them and honestly there are not many of us that truly wish to be Northern European. In fact our admiration for the British, Germans or Scandinavians stops at the point where we believe they are a little bit naïve.

Take the English queue - a pillar of democracy and respect of others. All Italians admire it and actually queue like perfect British gentlemen when in the UK, but as soon as they arrive at an Italian airport, the Italian passengers distinguish themselves by their sprint to get to the front of the line, burying the airport officials in a scrimmage at the counter, and leaving the English travelers patiently queuing for up to hours.

With the French and the Spanish it is all a different music. We see them at our level – and sometimes even inferiors. Our Latin “cousins” however, the French and Spanish, with whom we share a great deal of culture, tradition and history, we view with a certain disdain. An Italian ambassador in Paris famously admitted publicly that Italians could recognize the superiority of all other nations in the world, that is, except the French. The Spanish are regarded as even lower on the scale, having emerged from a dictatorship even later than us.

Take the languages – we can nearly understand eachother, but while we consider the French language as a snobbish Italian, we hear Spanish as a funny vulgar Italian.
In reality the facts of modern Europe do not support Italian prejudices towards their Latin cousins.

It is easy to notice that France is a better organized and ruled nation than Italy, just passing the border between Italy and France. France is really in Europe and has an important say in International affairs. Italy keeps changing its mind, side, friends and enemies – as it used to do in the past [wars?].

Though considered last on the boat of the European Community, Spain has passed Italy in terms of economic development and international standing thanks to its better quality of managers and has now better figures and a better economy than ours.

Moreover, apart from the Romans, Italy has never managed to conquer France or Spain. On the other hand, in the last centuries we have been colonized several times by the French and the Spanish.