Nord - Sud: Siamo italiani allo stesso livello ?

Una mia amica russa oggi mi ha fatto questa domanda:

Maybe my request seems to be a little strange, but I would like to ask you for sth…:)
Could you write me in a few words an answer for the question “Do Italians have a split/dual personality (North/South) or is just a stereotype?”.
I’m writing my end-of-term paper on that topic and I really need as more opinions from Italians (N and S) as possible.
It doesn’t have to be anything sophisticated – any form of the expression would be welcome
I hope you will enable me support my essay with your opinion on this issue
Thank you in advance
Bye

Qui, qualche mia osservazione e risposta:

Let’s start saying Italian national identity is such a complex issue, in fact we have so many territorial particularisms that’s difficult feeling yourself Italian facing someone who lives a completely different social context.

Nevertheless we are Italians… and you as a stranger probably will see more aspects in common with me and my “brother” from the south of Italy, than differences. Said that… the split exists, but I wouldn’t talk about a dual personality…

Why? That’s because of history, we’ve always been divided, we have the Vatican State “dividing” us still nowadays. More, different economy, way of thinking, way of being globalized. North/South: families are different, in the south we have the mafia situation that strongly decides people’s present and future.
“Lega Nord”, our right-wing political party, is there as a sort of demonstration of that split… but this can only be an Italian point of view, we’re part of Europe too. Among Europeans we are Italians and stop, migrants living there look at us as Italians as a whole… so foreign people are giving us more and more a sense of common identity.

To finish… I know the split exists, but I can now easily state that me from Brescia, and any other boy from Reggio Calabria have many things in common that define us, each other, as Italians, some people say we're italians in the same way, others we aren't because of different cultural factors and lifestyles, but as long as Italy in one nation, we'll all be italians on the same level.

Attendo vostre risposte e commenti :)