Quora：意大利在二战为何表现得如此糟糕？（长篇） [美国媒体]

Why did the Italian military do so poorly in WWII?

为何意大利军队在二战表现不堪？




Theodore Mavrikis, History enthousiast （历史发烧友）
I will give you an answer about the greco-italian front since I'm Greek and I have most knowledge in this particular war. Also since Greece was pretty much militarily inferior to Italy in WW2, the failure of this campaign illustrates the real weaknesses that the Italian army had .
Italians:
87,000 rising to 565,000 men
463 aircraft
163 light tanks
Greeks:
Fewer than 260,000 men
77 aircraft
(source wikipedia)
First of all the Italians as many other people answered, weren't willingly fighting for Mussolini. While the Greek leader at that point was also a dictator, like Mussolini, the Greeks were fighting to protect their lands and had better morale than the Italians.
Bellow is the map of the invasion, and the maximum penetration of the Italian offensive, as you can see it didn't go very far, but bear in mind that the area here is mountainous so advances were made with great difficulty.

我会给你一个关于意希战争的回答，因为我是希腊人且对这场特殊的战争很熟悉。二战时希腊军力远弱于意大利，这场战争的失败揭示了意军存在的真正问题。
意大利方：
87000人增加到565000人
463架飞机
163辆轻型坦克
希腊方：
不到260000人
77架飞机
（源自维基百科）
首先就和其他许多人回答的一样，意大利人不愿为墨索里尼而战。虽然当时的希腊领导人也是个像墨索里尼一样的独裁者，但希腊人为保家卫国而战所以士气高于意大利人。

Bellow is the map of the invasion, and the maximum penetration of the Italian offensive, as you can see it didn't go very far, but bear in mind that the area here is mountainous so advances were made with great difficulty.

看下面这张入侵地图以及意大利人推进的最远距离，正如你看到的没走多远，但要注意这个地区是山地所以难以行进。



However the Julia division was able to advance pretty far into Greek territory, reaching Vovousa and Samarina, getting very close to mayor Greek towns like Ioannina and Metsovo while being a thorn to the Greek defenders.

Julia师足以深入希腊领土抵达Vovousa和Samarina,十分接近像Ioannina和Metsovo之类的主要城市，这对于希腊守军们而言像是扎进了一根刺。

Now the Greek defenders while poorly equipped had some advantages. First of all they were fighting on their land and secondly the had experienced officers since Greece had fought in the Balkan war in 1912, in the WW1 in 1917 and after that in the Greek campaign in Asia Minor.

当时希腊守军装备简陋但也有优势，首先他们是本土作战其次1912年的巴尔干战争，1917年的一战及之后的小亚细亚希腊战役（应是指第二次希土战争，）使希腊拥有经验丰富的军官。

译者注：第二次希土战争（1919-1922），希腊军队被土耳其军队赶出小亚细亚，凯末尔登上土耳其政治舞台。

So they were able to overcome the Italians after almost encircling them in the river Aoos. After that point the Greeks were able to bring most of their forces to the front and push them back into Albania. After capturing a part of Albania, the Greek offensive reached a stalemate in winter and was followed by a major Italian offensive which failed to have any results. 

所以他们能在把大部分意大利人赶进Aoos河后打败他们。希腊人能够把大部分军队派往前线并把敌人赶回阿尔巴尼亚。在意大利人的主要攻势进展无果后希腊人占领了一部分阿尔巴尼亚而后在冬天陷入了僵局。

In home after the successful Greek offensive and the stalemate, the Italian public was becoming really unfavorable with their regime.

在希腊大获全胜和陷入僵局后，意大利民众对他们的政府愤懑不已。

Gerhard Ludwig Weinberg (ww2 historian)  , wrote: The Italian defeats in Greece and Albania were due to the "incredible incompetence of the Italian planning, preparations, and leadership" of the campaign, caused "two decades of Fascist rule", which had "left Italy with an army dramatically more poorly led, and equipped, and trained than that of 1915. Despite the heroism shown by Italian soldiers, who were "let down and misled by their superiors", the campaign "reflected both poor preparation and low morale." The campaign had far reaching consequences, since Mussolini's regime had claimed there would be a "quick and relatively easy victory". Defeat and stalemate exposed "the whole corrupt nature of the Fascist government and its war machine" leading to "great hardships" for the regular soldier, "due to the incompetence and unforgivably bad planning of their leaders".

Gerhard Ludwig Weinberg（二战历史学家）曾写道：意大利人在希腊和阿尔巴尼亚的失败要归咎于其在计划，准备以及指挥上表现出的难以置信的无能，这是由于“20年的法西斯统治”导致意大利军队相比1915年时无论在指挥，军备和训练上都大幅下降。尽管意大利士兵表现的很英勇，但那是因为不相信长官和被上级所骗。这场战争反映出了糟糕的准备工作和低落的士气且有更深远的影响，自从墨索里尼政权宣布要来一场“快速而比较轻松的胜利”后，战败和僵局显示了“这个法西斯政权和其战争机器完全烂到根子里了”，加上他们无能领导人制定的不可饶恕的糟糕计划，这让普通士兵吃尽了苦头。

So to conclude the Italian soldier weren't weak or cowards, as some may have depicted them but to win a war in those conditions, was really hard for both sides without external help.

所以可以得出结论，意大利士兵并非一些人说的那样软弱无能。而是要在这些情况下作战，双方没有外界帮助都难以取胜。



To further illustrate the failure of the campaign here are the numbers of the total casualties when the war ended:
Italy
Total combat losses: 89,696
Greece
Total combat losses: 58,578

为了进一步说明这场失败的战役，这是战争结束时的伤亡数字：
意大利
总战损：89696
希腊
总战损：58578



—John Rogers 
The British in North Africa were outnumbered 5 to 1 and swept the Italians back several hundred miles as fast as they could run, taking immense numbers of prisoners. The real truth is that the Italians had had twenty years of Fascism and were fed up to the back teeth with it. There were superb examples of Italian courage - the mini-sub raid on Alexandria being one, but the majority of the Italian army was ill-motivated, ill-led and ill-equipped. It didn't help that one of the main territorial disputes hanging on from WWI was over the Alto Adige/South Tyrol, between Grossdeutschland and Italy.

北非的英国人靠着大量囚犯在敌我对比5比1的劣势下让意大利人败逃到几百英里外。真相是意大利人20年来早已受够了法西斯统治。展示意大利人勇气的好例子是潜艇单骑突袭亚历山大港，但是大部分意大利军队还是士气不足，领导不力和装备不堪的。而在一战时奥匈帝国和意大利关于上阿迪杰和南蒂罗尔的领土争端则也是如此。

译者注：
突袭亚历山大港：指1941年12月意大利派出仅一艘潜艇突袭亚历山大港，在付出三只人操鱼雷和被俘六名蛙人的轻微损失后击沉伊丽莎白女王号及勇士号战列舰（后都被打捞修复），这也影响多国重视人操鱼雷（如日本的回天）。
Alto Adige/South Tyrol：上阿迪杰和南蒂罗尔地区原为奥匈帝国领土，奥意双方曾为争夺这些地区爆发战争，一战后割让给意大利。

—Faris Hasan
wow very nice answer

哇，回答得真好

—Chris DeVol
I thought it was because they ordered ziti instead of shells...

我想这是因为他们把弹药都换成了意大利面...

Tim Cole, built stuff for the military and worked with many great military people.
Originally Answered: Why were the Italian forces during WW2 usually referred to as second rate? Was it their training, leadership, or something else?
The single biggest problem was poor leadership, from Mussolini on down.  Corruption and cronyism at all levels of government didn't help, either.

最初的回答：为什么二战的意大利军队总被视为二流呢？是因为他们的训练，指挥或其它东西呢？
最大的原因是从墨索里尼往下整体指挥不力。其政府腐败且任人唯亲所以毫无卵用。

Vietnhi Phuvan, Buddhist. Columbia/NYU/CUNY alumn. New Yorker. Infosec/Devops. Martial artist. Pursuing the dream of peace through the study of war.
Updated Dec 30, 2015 · Upvoted by Eric Johnson, 25 years working in and around USAF F-16s
It is said that fish rot from the head on down.

有句话叫鱼从头烂到尾。

译者注：fish rot from the head on down，土耳其谚语（存疑），大意是组织或国家失败要归咎于领导无能。

As C-in-C, Il Duce was the personification of impulsiveness, recklessness and low information decision making. No difference between him and Hitler, except that Mussolini was prepared for 1933's wars while Hitler was prepared for 1939's wars. Il Duce's commanders, who had a more grounded grasp of the Italian army's limitations,  tried to talk him out of it but the only voice that Il Duce was listening to was the voice in his head.

作为总司令，墨索里尼性格冲动鲁莽且不三思而行。他和希特勒没什么不同，除了希特勒为39年的战争做准备时墨索里尼正为33年的做准备。墨索里尼的指挥官们知道意大利军队的局限之处但墨索里尼一意孤行。

There is an American slogan from the Vietnam War, which applied particularly well to the Italian army: "We are the unwilling, led by the unqualified, to do the unnecessary, for the ungrateful" There was no built-in consensus for war among ordinary Italians. Il Duce unilaterally dragged Italy in WWII, because he could and no one was going to stop him.

这是一个越战时的美国标语，也十分适用于意大利军队：“我们被无能之辈领导且不知为何而战，做着得不到感激的无用之事。”对于战争普通意大利人缺乏共识。墨索里尼单方面把意大利拖入二战，因为他能这么做且没人会阻止。

Elite Italian units would give, despite the deficiencies of their armaments,  British units a run for the money. Mellinthin wrote, as Rommel's Chief of Staff in North Africa, that "Italian troops gave many examples of dash and courage" But there was no compensating for the Italian officer corps being disinterested in the welfare and leadership of the soldiers in their charge, the inadequate number of artillery pieces, the Italian tanks being really thinly armored tankettes with either inadequate or non-existent radios, the Italian air force being mostly biplanes - 2000 planes when Italy declared war against Britain, only 186 of which were modern fighters. The most modern arm was probably the Navy but the brutal discipline there demotivated the sailors, and officers studiously kept their distance from their sailors - Failure of officers and sailors to work well together was bound to affect combat performance.

意大利精锐在缺乏武器的情况下也会战斗下去，英国人则为钱而战。隆美尔在北非时的参谋长Mellinthin是这样写的：那些“意大利士兵敢于冲锋且颇具勇气”但这些对军官们没有好处，他们对于手下士兵的指挥和福利都漠不关心。火炮不足，意大利坦克是装甲非常薄弱的超轻型坦克且数量不足还没有电台，意大利空军大部分还是双翼机 - 当意大利对英国宣战时有2000架飞机，但只有186架是现代战机。最现代化的可能是海军但是野蛮的训练模式使水兵士气低落，且军官刻意和水兵们保持距离 - 不合格的军官和士兵在一起共事肯定表现不堪。

I'll note that even for 1933, the Italian army never had a doctrine for using air force, tanks and navy effectively and in combination. So in essence, Italy's modernization of its armed forces was an exercise in squandering economic resources, with no hope of redemption when the invasion of Ethiopia took place.
In contrast, the Italian Partisans were quite effective. 

我要指出即使是到了1933年，意大利军队也不能有效发挥空军，坦克和海军的战力更别说联合作战了。意大利现代化自己军队的举措就是在浪费资源，而靠入侵埃塞尔比亚得到补偿也是没希望的。
相比而言，意大利游击队真的很不错。

Desmond Ng, I've got eight years of history research and reading behind me.
Updated Jan 1 · Upvoted by Eric Johnson, 25 years working in and around USAF F-16s
First of all, their leadership was awful. During the invasion of Greece, a German liaison officer, as well as the men in charge of logistics, pleaded with his Italian counterparts again and again to change the plan, or to to least delay it, but they didn't listen. When the Greek counterattack came, the divisional commanders desperately tried to find the general to organize a defense at the Albania border. They found him 10 miles from his HQ, at a cafe, composing a love song.(No joke here) The men and lower level commanders were a mix, there were many of good quality, but the higher ups were almost universal in their incompetence and lack of drive and focus.

首先，他们的领导人非常烂。在入侵希腊时期，一个负责后勤的德国联络官多次恳求他的意大利同僚们改变计划，哪怕是暂缓一下也行，但他们充耳不闻。当希腊人开始反攻时，在阿尔巴尼亚边境师长们拼命寻找总司令来组织防御。他们在司令部10英里外的一家咖啡馆找到了正在写一首情诗的司令官。（这不是在开玩笑）这货和他的废物指挥官们混杂在一起，尽管意军有不少优秀品质，但高层大部分既无能又尸位素餐。

Second, few wanted this war. Unlike Germans, who were furious at WWI's outcome, or the Japanese, who felt sidelined, Italy had no major angers. They had gotten their disputed territory, colonial gains, etc. They had not given some land promised to them but few really minded. It took stunning German successes and all of Mussolini's skill to raise war furor among the population.

其次，缺乏战意。不像对一战结果怒火滔天的德国或感觉自己被排斥出核心层的日本，意大利没什么可怒的。他们得到了争议领土，殖民地利益等。他们没能得到一些承诺给他们的土地但也没几个人在意。让意大利人对战争产生兴趣的是来自德国的惊人胜利和墨索里尼使劲浑身解数。

Third, the equipment was horrible. Italy's industry was atrocious. Over the course of the entire war, Italy produced fewer than 10000 tanks. Germany, who you might recognize as the one suffering the most punishment, produced 20000 in 1944 alone. The Italians, ironically, had doomed themselves by rearming too early. They had up-sized in the early 1930s. By the time WWII rolled around, their army was obsolete, and lacked equipment, since a lot of their funds had been spent.

再次，武备不精。意大利工业糟糕。在整场战争中它生产了不到10000辆坦克。而德国这个你可能认为是遭受了最多惩罚的国家，仅在1944年就生产了20000辆。讽刺的是意大利人的情况要归咎于武装更新的太早了。他们在20世纪30年代早期还算装备精良。而在二战时他们的军队已经落伍了且装备不足，因为之前他们已经把钱花得差不多了。

—Douglas Ungredda 1 upvote
On this topic, some years ago I overheard a nasty joke about Italian equipment poor performance and how  army units fared poorly, despite  individual heroism and bravery in combat. The joke was about Italian tank five shifting gears.... First forward and four backwards.

关于这个我想起了几年前偶尔听到的一个下流笑话，是关于意大利武器和军队的糟糕表现的，尽管他们也富有个人英雄主义且战斗英勇。这个笑话是意大利坦克有五个档位....一个前进四个后退。

—Desmond Ng
Considering how many Italians fought bravely in Italy itself this is somewhat insulting.

考虑到有多少意大利人在本国英勇奋战这有点侮辱了。

—Christian Wenzel 1 upvote
"Despite individual heroism and bravery". There is an Italian saying which sounds like "We were short of luck, not valor". I think this is at the root of a lot of misunderstandings on the assessment of Italian combat performances. Italian tend to used the sentence apologetically. Asked about pour combat spirit, they will blame "the regime"(how comfortable). On the other hand, allies would do a joke of Italians: at  the end, they match all racial prejudices applying to Italian immigrants: short, with greasy hair, cunning and skirting hard work. Who would think these are good soldiers?
I believe , luck has  very little to do with the outcome of any war. Sensible aims, strategy and logistics have. No organised formation can fight well without supplies, clear orders and decent weapons. I also believe, Italian should ask themselves why their country entered a war of aggression in such a blatant state of unpreparedness. it was not bad luck.

“尽管他们富有个人英雄主义且战斗英勇”。这是意大利人的说法听起来就像“我们英勇战斗只是运气不好”。我想这就是许多对意大利战场表现误解的根源。意大利人经常用含歉意的句子。在被问及战斗精神时，他们会去责怪“政府”（真是轻松）。另一方面同盟也有关于意大利人的笑话：最后他们把所有种族歧视词汇都安给了意大利移民：有着油腻头发，好逸恶劳的奸诈矮子。谁会觉得这些人是好兵？
我相信运气对战争结果影响甚微，要拥有的是合理的目标，战略和后勤保障。没有军队可以在物资缺乏，指挥混乱和武器不足的情况下取得胜利。我也相信意大利人应扪心自问为什么他们的国家要参加这场侵略战争时人民无动于衷。这可不是运气不好。

—Rich Matarese 1 upvote
Moreover, much of the Italian draft-age population was illiterate.  Prior to World War Two, the unspoken primary purpose of military conscription in Italy was to teach the young draftees how to read.  Lack of general literacy was a horrendous impediment to the development of military capability in the '30s and '40s.

此外，大部分意大利适龄人口是文盲，在二战前，意大利军队征兵后的主要任务是教新兵识字。普遍缺乏文化在30和40年代对于提升军力是严重的阻碍。

—Stefan Reich 4 upvotes
How much better writing a love song is compared to building a tank.

跟造一辆坦克比起来写一首情诗要好多了。

—Michael LeFevre 2 upvotes
Not just the fact they didn't have enough tanks, they were inferior as well. The M1340 was dubbed the 'living coffin' due to its thin armour plating.

事实上他们的坦克不仅数量不足，质量也堪忧。M1340因其装甲薄弱被戏称为“活棺材”。

—Rich Lyon
n 1936, my brother and I were just a few feet below Mussolini when he declared Italy again an Empire. Italians , even their leaders, never had their hearts in fighting Britain  America, Hitler forced them into it and his military superiority left Mussolini no choice.

1936年在墨索里尼宣布意大利重新成为一个帝国时我和我兄弟就站在他下面几英尺远。意大利人包括他们的领导人都无心对抗英美，希特勒强迫他们卷入战争，他的强大军队让墨索里尼别无选择。

——Paul Weston
Nonsence; Hitler didn′t force the “Corpo Aereo Italiano” to bomb English towns during the Battle of Britain. Mussolini insisted on participating. Hitler also didn′t force the Italians to invade British possessions in East Africa and only intervened in the North African campaign, after the British bitch slapped the Italian Army - big time.

别扯淡了，希特勒没有强迫“意大利航空公司”在不列颠之战轰炸英国城市。是墨索里尼坚持要加入的，希特勒也没有强迫意大利人在东非入侵英国领土而且只是干预了北非，在这之前不列颠表子们狠抽了意大利军队的脸 - 干得好。

Charlie Smith, Retired Lawyer
Written Dec 29, 2015
In 1968 Time Magazine printed a comment from an American officer who was so unhappy with the American army's performance in Vietnam that he said they were "...as bad as the Italians in World War Two."
The Italian ambassador to the U.S. wrote a reply agreeing with the assessment and suggesting that the U.S. think about why.  He noted that when most of the enlisted men know that they are fighting on the wrong side, in an army directed by an incompetent bully and led by corrupt officers, they rarely fight well.
That pretty well sums up the Italian army in World War Two and the American army in Vietnam.

1968年时代杂志刊登了一位美国军官的评论，他对美国军队在越南的表现大动肝火说他们和二战时的意大利人一样糟。
意大利驻美国大使对评论写了回复，说他同意这个评价并建议美国想想这是为什么。他指出当大部分士兵知道他们在错误的一方作战，且军队被无能暴徒和腐败官僚们掌控时，他们很难打好仗。
这能很好的总结二战意大利军队和越战美军。

—Dennis Mulgannon 5 upvotes
Bullshit!  Every one of us who had to fight, fought well.  Don't confuse the American Combat Soldier with the people who put him there, goddamn-it!
This line of thinking that the American Combat Soldier in Vietnam was not a good soldier is the same bullshit we veterans have had to endure since we got out.  People like you expect us to hang our heads in shame.  We didn't drop our weapons and run.  We were there, and we did the best we could under the circumstances.  We were drafted by the thousands, and our training was very very poor, yet we endured and did the best that we possibly could do. 
Generally, this negative line of reasoning comes from reading books and not living as we had lived, where we had lived, and where many of us died.

胡扯！我们每个人都必须战斗且打得很好。别把美国前线士兵和把他们丢到那的人混在一起，该死的！
所谓越战美国前线士兵不是好兵同样是胡扯，我们这些老兵在撤离后已经受够了这种说法。像你一样的货色希望我们羞愧的低下头。但我们没有丢下武器逃跑。我们就在那，在那种情况下拼尽全力。我们的人数成千上万但训练非常非常不足，但我们还是坚持下去并尽可能做到最好。
一般而言，这类消极性的推理都是来自书本而不是我们的过往经历，不是来自于我们停留过且有许多人战死的地方。

—Hans-Christian Heinz 5 upvotes
Well, the Italians learned from it. Which is a good thing.

很好，意大利人从中学到了些东西。这是好事。

——Armin Hanik
The Italians learned something? Do tell!

意大利人学到了什么？说啊！

—John Mack 6 upvotes
Yes, in the Viet Nam era for a high ranking  US officer to get quick promotion he needed combat experience. The Solution; Take a helicopter ride over a combat zone. Poof, combat experience, at almost not risk. If you were a grunt, or a real combat officer, seeing this charade going on, would you be willing to fight  (except to survive)?

是的，越战时期一个美国高级军官想要快速晋升的话就需要有战场经历。解决办法：坐着直升机穿越一个战区上空。噗，几乎零风险的战场经历。试问你是士兵或真正的战场指挥官的话，看到这出把戏还想打下去吗（除了保命时）？

William Tierney
Written Dec 28, 2015 · Upvoted by Eric Johnson, 25 years working in and around USAF F-16s
An old professor of mine told me a story from his youth, he was a Greek-Cypriot Egyptian living in Cairo with his parents during the war.
With the initial Italian invasion, the air raid warning would go off, Marchetti bombers would routinely fly overhead and drop their payload out in the desert, harming no-one. Later in the war with the Germans, they on the other hand went out for total destruction.
Both sets of pilots (Italian & German) had a choice, The Italian Pilots had a conscience, they where drawn into a war by Mussolini that they really didn't have the stomach for. This is why the Italian military did so poorly in WWII.
He was an interesting character this old Professor with many good stories, he left Egypt for Scotland to study Mechanical Engineering. He wrote and spoke in English, Greek and Arabic, but was proficient in none of them to a very high standard!

我的老教授曾给我说过他年轻时的一个故事，他是希腊-塞浦路斯混血的埃及人，战争时和父母一起住在开罗。
在意大利人入侵后，空袭警报一响，马尔凯蒂轰炸机（意军二战轰炸机）会例行公事的飞过然后把炸弹扔到沙漠里，无人伤亡。之后和德国人并肩作战时，他们表现出了另外一面一直战斗到全军覆没。
双方飞行员（意大利和德国）都有自己的选择。意大利飞行员还有良知，他们无心作战是墨索里尼把他们拉进战争。这就是为什么意大利军队在二战表现不堪。
这位老教授是个有着很多好故事的有趣人物，他离开埃及前往苏格兰学习机械工程学。他懂英语，希腊语和阿拉伯语但是水平都不够高。

—Dave Lovell 5 upvotes
Many years ago I worked with a Croatian man, who was a veteran of Marshal Tito's Yugoslavian resistance in World War II. At various times during the war they were engaged in hit-and-run attacks, against both German and Italian troops. He told me that while the Germans were ruthlessly efficient in hitting back at the resistance fighters, the Italians would begin firing rounds when they were still a great distance away, giving his unit plenty of opportunity to escape and melt back into the civilian population.  He believed  that the Italian troops didn't really want to be part of a fight that was none of their concern.

许多年前我曾和一位克罗地亚人共事，他在二战时是铁托元帅手下抵抗组织的士兵。在战争不同时期他们边打边跑来对抗德意军队。他对我说当德国人对抵抗战士进行残忍而高效的回击时，意大利人就会开炮即使他们跑远时还是不会停火，这给了他们足够机会来撤离或混入人群。他相信意大利军队并不真的想参战也无心参战。

——Christian Wenzel 1 upvote
This is true and documented for 1942-43. In 1941 Italian troops made southern Slovenia an Italian province and staged a major repression against Slavic population, burning villages to ashes, killing innocent civilians and opening concentration camps in the littoral area. The point was, they had not the resources to keep their conquest. As partisan activity mounted and the open fields became less safe, Italian lost their will to fight. I don't think it had to do with ideology but rather with preservation instinct and terribly poor leadership.

这有关于1942-43年的真实记录。1941年意大利军队把斯洛文尼亚南部变成了一个意大利省份并对斯拉夫人口开展大规模镇压，烧毁村庄，杀死无辜民众，在沿海地区设置集中营。这是因为他们没法稳定征服此地。随着游击队的活跃空旷的田野也不再安全，意大利人失去了战斗意志。我不觉得这是因为思想更多的是源自生存本能和异常废物的领导。

Fred Landis, Investigative Reporter（23个赞）
Updated Nov 30, 2015 · Upvoted by Eric Johnson, 25 years working in and around USAF F-16s
Is there such a thing as National Character?
Before politically correct social studies texts insisted there was.
Of all the countries I have been to, the one in which national character has changed the least is Italy.
Italians are fierce in defense of the honor of their family but rather vague about the adjacent province,let alone the corrupt and distant politicians in Rome.
Italian national character involves a healthy disrespect toward national authority often even including  the Vatican.
The only person who predicted the collapse of the USSR was George Keenan and he based it entirely on his reading of the Russian national character.

这和民族性有关吗？
在政治正确的教科书级社会研究取代这里前。（我想说）
在我去过的所有国家里，民族性格改变最少的就是意大利。
意大利人可以为了捍卫家族荣誉奋不顾身，但说到（保卫）邻省时就含糊其辞了，更不要说远在罗马的腐败政客们了。
意大利人的民族性很明智的不尊重国家权威，甚至对梵蒂冈也是如此。
唯一预测到苏联解体的人是George Keenan 。他这完全是出于对俄罗斯人民族性的了解。

译者注：George Keenan（1904-2005），乔治·凯南是美国国家政策顾问、外交家、政治学家和历史学家、普利策新闻奖获得者、围堵政策始创人（1946年提出，后被美国采纳为对抗苏联的长期策略）。 

还有一些回答大致介绍即可，不必翻译（绝对不是懒）

1对意大利的针对性宣传从上世纪60年代就开始了，颇多夸张成分，日积月累已这种印象已根深蒂固。
2意大利人民战争时过得不好，所以不支持战争，箪食壶浆以迎王师快来救济自己。
3意大利统一程度不足，人民缺乏向心力只知有家不知有国，南北对立严重想散伙。
4意大利武器奇葩而无用，现代化水平低。
5意大利经济太垃圾，武装不起部队。
6意大利就是面。（吃我墨某一拳！！！）
大家又是怎么看的呢？