The driving force of Italian economics...is the northern one third of the country. These guys know it...they have the facts...and they are now questioning about the various amounts of money that is returned to their region (schools, infrastructure, etc). This is not to say that the central or the southern part of the country makes no money...but the bulk is northern-generated.
Its a wonderful topic of discussion with Italians because they all get into this. I spent two weeks there last year...and its the best starter of a conversation that you can use. I doubt seriously that they can bring themselves to break the country up...because of the Roman history business. Although the northern third folks....would love to dream about their little nation being the biggest per capita money generator of any EU country....so they want to brag.
The north-south disparity is not exclusive to Italy. It was true in the US as well, until the TVA much of the south was dirt poor and without electricity or indoor plumbing or flouridated water.