Having lived a couple of years in Italy, I can attest that Italians are hard on the outside and chewy on the inside. They have built a hard outer shell to deal

Having lived a couple of years in Italy, I can attest that Italians are hard on the outside and chewy on the inside. They have built a hard outer shell to deal with all of the constant bullshit that they're awash in day-in and day-out. But once you're "in," you are *in*. The degree of mutual trust and goodwill among their in-groups would put most North American social groups, including and perhaps especially families, to shame.