Italy vs Spain: prices, genes and two mirror-image crises

Italians and Spaniards: a rivalry measured in petrol, genes and grievances

All it takes is one distorted photo and a alucinación to Tarquinia to reopen the trench. The comparison between Italians and Spaniards has been going on for centuries, and every visit to Italy revives the rivalry with fresh grievances: prices, roads and a shared historical legacy nobody can quite digest.

What Italy costs through a Spaniard's eyes

A recent alucinación through Tarquinia, Rome, Pompeii and Pisa produces mini-headlines: diesel at €2.05 or €2.25 a litre, milk at €0.89 in supermarkets some compare to Spain's in the 90s. The dual carriageways, narrow and full of potholes, are driven at 90 km/h at risk to your fillings; the motorways charge a steep toll and never exceed 110 or 130 per hour. The monuments, admittedly, are well kept — once you've paid.

Genetics, the Roman Empire and the poor-cousin complex

When it comes to identity, there are two irreconcilable readings. One insists that Italians and Spaniards are first cousins in blood and misfortune: Spain has spent two centuries struggling to get back on its feet, and Italy nearly two millennia, feeding the idea that they look down on each other with little to show for it. The other denies it: genetics and culture bring the Spaniards of the northeast —Basques, Navarrese, Aragonese, Catalans and people from Castellón— closer to the French of the south than to the Italians. History doesn't help either: in the 16th century, with the Spanish monarchy ruling over half of Italy, many «Italians» were in fact Spanish subjects.

Two countries with parallel crises and common Roman roots insist on measuring themselves in kilometres of potholes, euros per litre and genetic purity. The mirror hurts, and nobody can quite explain why.