There used to be a couple of Italians in our school and we used to get mad when outsiders would stick the same stereotypes to both French & Italians like grumpy old men , sexy women ready to sell themselves, men yelling and making a lot of gestures while talking etc etc...
Some of those stereotypes were way beyond the limits!! Both the Italians and French are also given this stereotype image of being extremely poor in English, that's so not true! I know many people from both countries who are very fluent in English albeit most of them possess a distinctive French & Italian accent even while speaking English.
Savvy