Oh -- what Rushthatspeaks says about cats? Italy is the best place in the entire world for cats. Imagine what you'd want in life if you were a cat. How about "nice sunbeams", "people for giving you scritches", "not very many significant predators that eat cats" (there are SOME, but not as many as, say, coyotes in around here in the United States), "access to delicious people food", "a good population of birds and rodents for hunting" ...

As far as I can tell, Italians and cats pretty much value the same things in life, which is why they get along so famously.