- Italy used to handle Europe's low end manufacturing, like textiles, thanks to our relatively inexpensive wages and nice location. This all disappeared in the last 15 years with production moving to Asia, you can say we got outcompeted at our own game. Here is one example of one such factories in ruin (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Valdagno_Marzotto.jpg) I saw last week. That thing is massive.
- You heard this before, but taxation is huge. It's one of the reasons I left and it is especially depressing given the next to nothing we have to show for it. We do have a corrupted political class we can't seem to get rid of. I didn't really follow but it seems that in the process of replacing it we ended up with a worst evil, that is populism. I guess stealing a bit from everyone for your own profit is a thing, stealing from future generations for feel-better political manoeuvres is even worse.
- The huge divide from north to south. It's a long story, but if you ask the north they will tell you the south is spending all their taxes, if you ask the south they will tell you the north conquered them and stole all of their wealth 200 years ago. The region I'm from, Veneto, used to be one of the wealthiest in Europe until very recently. The big majority of our taxation ended up being redistributed in the south, again, with nothing to show for it thanks to corrupted politicians, mafia and I will add, a general disinterest in improving one's condition due to the very nice weather and the very little you have to do in life to live comfortably in the south. Which I hope doesn't sparkle any debate, it's something I believe you can observe in the whole of Europe taking a train from Sicily to Norway.
- English. We don't speak it. If we do it's just a notch above barely. With the internet and international commerce that is holding us back more than you would expect. I wish we had cartoons and movies with no dubbing on national TV.
On the positive side, one Indian friend of mine jokingly told me his parents still buy textile machines from Italian companies, which is a nice example of the kind of industries that managed to survive in Italy to this day.