noglider 

Cultures in the Catholic religion seem to be marked with passion. I won't go into theology to try to explain why, but it's an observation. And Italians seem even more so than, say, the French.

Italians have a flair for design. Sometimes it's over the top or gaudy. I find some Italian bikes much too decorative, but even still, there is a certain mastery of the art.

There also seems to be a ethos of form over function. The attitude sometimes seems to be that it doesn't matter if it works well as long as it looks good. I had an Italian-made espresso machine which was amazing to look at, but I had to contort my body to put water in it. The sequence of button presses didn't make a lot of sense. But it looked fantastic. Generally, the (high end) Italian racing bikes I've worked on, and there were many, were very well made but not as well made as the American or Japanese ones.