There was no shortage of attention for Italy in the world's newspapers over the last week. Last Friday, The Economist published an article outlining the difficulties Berlusconi is facing on the domestic front. Even more controversial proved to be the editorial which came out on the same issue of the weekly, suggesting that it is time to say addio to the Italian PM. Last Sunday, the Financial Times then added more misery to the PM, by publishing an editorial, Berlusconi at bay, in which it criticised the fact that Berlusconi was spending more and more time on his own businesses rather than on, for example, addressing the challenges connected to the economic crisis.

The articles produced two types of reactions in Italy. These are the same ones emerging whenever well-known media, such as the FT or The Economist, publish stories about Italian politics and, in particular, on Berlusconi. Unsurprisingly, the left-leaning La Repubblica gave ample space to the articles which proved to be so critical of the Prime Minister.  Conversely, on the right-leaning Il Giornale, an article appeared which blamed the British gufi (owls, to signify that they bring bad luck) for not understanding anything about Italy.

Despite the differences in their contents, both articles show the ample space Italian newspapers always dedicate to the coverage of Italian politics made around the world, and particularly by the British media. In the case of La Repubblica article, this attention can be motivated as a way to outline how the Italian newspaper’s opinion is supported by other authoritative sources. For Il Giornale, instead, it is a way of recreating a certain patriotic sentiment, based on the idea that foreigners will never understand Italy (and, anyway, they would not want the good of Italy).

This obsessive attention with the foreign press may simply be showing that Italy is a country with an understandable, natural tendency to look outside of its borders, given its attachment to the European Union and, more generally, its economic and political interconnections with the rest of the world. In this respect, the attention to what the foreign media say is completely legitimate and totally justified. However, one wonders whether there may be something else in play. Perhaps, this may suggest a certain lack of confidence of the Italian media, who may suffer from that very Italian sentiment that the neighbour’s grass is always greener and, hence, always worth at least talking about.