Italian culture is very very rich and something to take great pride in (except for the Blackshirts and that Fabio moron of course). I’m barely a quarter Italian, by way of South America, and I personally can’t stand the “Italian Stallion” types either. To me they don’t represent Italians at all.
Someone once tried to guess my nationality. He got Italian on the first try, but when he was trying (and ultimately failing) to divine what the other half was, he asked, “Are you Jewish?” Jewish is not a nationality!! As I informed him.