Are certain horrific aspects of catholicism distinctive to that sect specificaly.

[Something completely different]

Hahahahah, if she's from Genova she is quite biased!

Is there a country in this world that does ot have a "north - south" rivalry?

In these days, there is not much difference, really...

So is The Economist lying here?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ATlTWjy5zs

I was referring to the previous point, sorry if I wasn't clear

Never mind, my lazy reading fault.

Yes I see a lot of you Austrians/Germans down here... Anyway, it's weird you have never heard of Salento (the heel of the boot), it's been gaining a lot of popularity in the last years.

I have only been to Rimini, Rome and Venece.

Last time a very long time ago, with Berlusconi in power there I simply thought it isn`t a place worth visiting if it`s people elect someone like that (sorry). So I didn`t really think of going there for a long time and am not up to the newest trends. I only know that alot of people are now starting to prefer Croatia, where you can buy a small house at the beach at very low prices and the taxrates for property are low and where bureaucracy and paperwork surrounding owning a property in a foreign country isn`t that complicated.

(We love to not just o to places as tourists, germans often buy property in the countries they frequently visit as tourists and owning property as a foreigner in Italy is supposedly really nervewrecking)

We have reached a certain balance from the '90s onwards.

So why is the South still so much poorer? Did the wealth trickle down to the population?

Partly true. It *was* completed but they have been "modernizing" it since 1998 because many traits were not really what you would expect from a highway.

still is a bit weird.