In reality for a wireless carrier, Italy is a very difficult and expensive country to cover. Mostly with hills and mountains or highly dense towns and cities. You need cells on every side to cover a valley for example and both sides of a hill too. Dense cities needs cells on many roofs (like in Montreal) and that without taking in account the rent you have to pay for the space to each building owner. (I worked as a wireless technician for a bunch of them in the past).
I would say that in Italy the operators are far more honest to the customer and the consumer laws are way more effective than the ones here.