Sad how far Italy has fallen.
From a country that produced Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante and Marconi, they don't have any Universities in the top 150 of world universities.
Hmm, I think Marconi was actually from Serbia. Oh, and Tesla invented radio, and sued Marconi. :’)
But anyway point well taken. The Medici era in Florence produced (besides private banking that didn’t rely on Jewish lenders) Michelangelo, da Vinci, Machiavelli (all at nearly the same time), many others; earlier on, Florence produced Brunellesci (sp?) who Michelangelo studied in order to plan the great dome for the new St Peter’s in Rome.
But of course, at that time, Italy wasn’t a unified state. And, I think we’ve hit on the answer... ;’)