Their politics are a mess, the government... let's never discuss it again. Yet Italians seem to live really good lives. It's something of a mystery to me. But here is a clue, and is so often the case, you can get a glimpse of a nation's soul in their morning cup. I once posted a Guardian article about a Danish girl living in England. She loved it, except for a few things. One of those is that the Brits drink a "psychopathic" amounts of tea. Loved that line, if I lived in a place that was that wet and gloomy, I'd drink psychopathic amounts of something. Prob more than one something..
I would expand on that a bit, it's their diet. Lots of stuff that's good for you, not much that's bad. The other thing is that their cities and towns are walkable. In most of Europe daily life has you walking a lot more than Americans do. Italians tend to eat light until dinner, that helps. A coffee or tea and something small like a croissant is a popular breakfast in Europe.
In fact, for some town centers, especially old, you can only walk them as they were build during middle age. It's awesome for students or retired people, you don't have to worry about cars, less noise, the social life at evening is nicer. If you're a family with children, it's less easy.