Life in Italy is wonderful. You clearly got traumatized because of 1 or 2 events. I am not Italian and my wife is even not from within Schengen. We had no problems at all. Just a lot of paperwork. But that's normal, because I had the same problem in Belgium when my wife came to live with me there many years ago. Almost 100 pages of documents, translations with apostile, documents from different ministries, stamps, visits to local administrations, police checking in our house if my wife really lived there (2 times)... Three times changing of ID documents : first temporary card, later F card, and after that F+ card. And renewing passport of my wife in here native country (so fly there and back) every 5 years.
I clearly said that was just a couple of events from MANY. Unless you can't read(in which case, it would be forgivable), don't try to tell me how my experience was. Late and crappy trains from their shitty nationalized train system who went on strike all the time(Italo and Freccia Rossa are actually good, but very limited destinations), rude people everywhere because nobody is afraid to get fired, because of their stupid labor laws, which Brazil copied(something even Italians who have lived there their whole lifes admit it), the people in the Questura(their federal police where the Permesso di Soggiorno should be issued) were scheduling the appointments with a pencil in a fucking notebook(and that was not an exception, that was actually their system), one of the towns I lived was a small town near Milan, every single time, literally, that I had to solve something at the bank there, they didn't even listen to what I wanted, they always had the answer ready: "Devi andare a Milano." (You have to go to Milan), as if going to another town, as close as it may be, was something normal to solve problems of the same bank and all the fucking bureaucratic nightmare you yourself described as well. As I said, it doesn't end there, every fucking day, some absurd shit would come up... And I'm Brazilian, I know what crappy service is. But Italy is indeed something else.
It's different. I would say they are great different things. Pizza in Italia, for example, are individual, not sliced, they taste great and my impression is that they have very different toppings as the usual NYC pizza(I ate the best pizzas in Napoli there). Last time I was in NYC, I tried the Bleeker Street place that is famous. I thought it was like a tourist trap before we went there, but I loved it, my wife kept asking to go back there. So, IMHO, despite what purists would say and tear their hair out by seeing someone say something like this: NYC pizza is just as good as an Italian pizza, even the pizza from Naples, but they are just completely different things at the same level.
This is good to know, and an affirmation of the fact that NYC is the best pizza in the world, but in a different way. ;-) As for toppings? That's totally personal. A true pizza-run-off competition would be cheese ONLY! *sniffs*
You have to try this baby out. Apricot with plenty of mozzarella. I ate this in Naples. Delicious. Everything about it, from the dough to the toppings.
To the ones saying fuck Italy and fuck south of Europe, I say fuck you idiots... What do you know about beautiful countries, people and history... When Italy had renaissance, the USA was in a prehistoric state. Britain use to have sewage running freely in the street before the Romans conquered. Savages... NeoTrader, I agree about the burocracy, Italy it's a nightmare. But... Would any other country give you citizenship if your great grandfather was from there? Would the Brits, Swiss or Austrian give you citizenship with the same conditions Italy did? Italy is very difficult to live and adapt in, but once you do, and you make good money, it's one of the best country to live and enjoy. Unless you are a "one language speaking ignorant". Zdreg, the humanity and the fun we have in the south of Europe, is something you northeners or eastern, wherever the fuck you are from, can't even dream about. Are you maybe British? That would be even more pathetic... bunch of nasty drunk racist white heads without sunshine and a limited choice of plastic food. Arrogants mono language pshycotic idiots always looking for a fight. Hooligans. Overnight... NYC pizza? Seriously? WTF are you talking about.... have you ever left your country man? Italy is way more than a pizza. For the Italians, pizza is the equivalent of junk food guilty pleasure. The Italian menu is massive, 20 regions with 20 different local cuisine and 20 different dialects. Even the pizza is a different world between Naples and Rome. People, please, don't go to Italy. Stay where the fuck you are from, italians have enough of fat tourists taking pictures and pretending everyone should speak fucking english.... That zdreg fucker really pissed me off.
I never suggested that Italy was only pizza, and did not have more to offer. I was simply on about the comparison between NYC pizza and pizza from Italy. Specifically I was thinking of Naples, Neapolitan-style, which is the basis for NYC-style pizza. Don't take stuff so personally, geez.