My dad was sitting on Corsica waiting for the 7th Army’s chance to invade the south of France, which came about two months after Normandy.
The original plan had been to launch both invasions at once but there wasn’t enough shipping to pull off two large landings at once.
Before Normandy, really heavy fighting had been going on for nearly a year in Italy. The mountainous Italian geography is most agreeable to the defense and the German army had constructed a series of formidable defensive lines. The advance up the spine of Italy was very slow and bloody, with the liberation of Rome coming just two days before the Normandy invasion.
Napolean said Italy is indeed like a boot - its best entered from the top