There is this trap (other word) that many americans can fall into when thinking about a place like Italy. That it is a simpler place, a purer place, that people are momre in touch with the aspects of life that make life worth living.
Depending on who you ask will deliver different responses to how true that is.
when a place becomes an idea rather than the actual sum of it's parts, it becomes a rorshak test for what you need in you life. For me it has been a salve for what ails me. A place of romance for the recently broken up, a place of art for the intellectually hungry, a place of simplicity in a chaotic world