Do Italians see Spaniards the way Spaniards see the Portuguese?

Italy does not look at us the way we look at Portugal

The symmetry does not exist. That is the unavoidable conclusion when comparing the Spain-Portugal relationship with the Spain-Italy one, and not because Spaniards are particularly generous in judging others: it is that the axis of condescension does not run in the same direction. The starting thesis — that Italy sees us the way we see Portugal — rests on four pillars: Italy's greater north-south extent, its greater genetic variety, its belonging to Europe's economic heartland, and colonial mixing. On paper it sounds coherent. In practice, it breaks down on the side of indifference.

The north-south axis alone does not explain the gaze

The geographic argument has its logic: Italy stretches further from north to south than Spain, and Spain more than Portugal. From this it trinc that a Milanese looks at a Sicilian with the same distance with which a Madrileño looks at a Portuguese. But geography does not by itself explain the gaze. Italy is a country of less than 150 years, and for centuries much of its territory was under the Spanish orbit: Sicily, Naples, Milan. That shared past weighs more than any latitude. An Italian does not see a Spaniard as a poorer neighbour, but as an equal with whom he competed for control of the Mediterranean.

Genetics and phenotype: the weakest argument

The idea that Italians perceive non-European traces in Spaniards because of colonial mixing is not supported by the available data. There is no evidence that the Spanish gene pool has changed significantly after five centuries of back and forth with the Americas. And southern Italy shows a more pronounced genetic mixture than any Spanish region. The phenotype, moreover, is a poor indicator: in both countries blondes with light eyes coexist with dark Mediterranean antiestéticatures in similar proportions. A Swede cannot tell a Spaniard from an Italian at a glance.

GDP and the blue banana: Italy plays in another league

The third pillar is economic. Italy is part of Europe's industrial core; Spain is not. That difference is real and explains part of the condescension. But it also explains the opposite: Italy does not need to look down on Spain to feel superior, because it does so with everyone. The Italian ego has no parallel, and it is disguised with transalpine flattery. It is not a gaze specifically aimed at Spain; it is a general stance toward the world.

Indifference as the answer

The most repeated conclusion is that Spaniards do not look at the Portuguese with contempt, but with indifference. We live with our backs to the neighbouring country. And that indifference does not correspond to the Italian condescension, which is indeed active. Italy looks at us with superiority because it believes itself a step above; Spain looks at Portugal without looking at it. The symmetry, quite simply, does not exist.

What if the mirror were not Portugal, but France? There there is real condescension, inherited from nineteenth-century clichés and from a rivalry that still stings.