Italy didn't just lose in WWII, because they switched sides they arguably lost two or even three different times. Yet, unlike Japan and Germany, the Allies let them put their own country back together in the manner they saw fit. Last week, the consequences of this very bad decision landed hard on Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend.
The place is like the Paris Hilton of countries: fabulously successful ancestors, but so shielded from the consequences of repeated failures that it is totally unequipped to function in the modern world.
Like Italy, raised to be helpless in the modern world.