Thanks for the insight, very interesting. My wife is Italian. Judging by her family, there's hope for the future.
On another subject, I'm still wondering how some of the U.S. election rhetoric was received in Italy. Specifically, the comment by Kerry that some military organization was so weak that even the Italians could kick their @$$es. I made sure my wife, who watched not a second of the debates, heard about that one. She got that "oh yeah?" look in her eye.
Dear friend, the comment of Kerry passed a little only because our great Minister of Defense, Martino, decided to underline his disappointment. That's all.
Instead, there are many American leftist rats (Professors and so on) who are currently writing on our newspaper that Bush has no mandate (and that republican voters - they write - are all integralists and topers. I hate these American rats!). Today, I've written (in Italian) my own answer on an electronic newspaper, mocking a previous comment on Bush (Professor Stephen Martin is a rat). When it is published (I hope so), I'll say you and the FReeper all, where to find it. It's incredible, Dems and European left are so angry and mystifier. Our EU-Commissar-candidate Buttiglione has been fired, as you know, because he is a catholic!. In the Usa you have rats, but Italian leftists are even worse! They have the real power and they use it! In common (you and we conservatives), we have a media bias really strong. But we would need a Fox channel, but we haven't any now.