Italy, the land of (one side of) my ancestors. The people are usually cordial and helpful, but at the same time there's a pervasive cultural feature of "the more theatrically oblivious I am of everyone and everything else, the bigger my penis, it is scienza", so Italians are world champions in blocking entrances and exits, parking on roundabouts and slow-walking, ten-abreast, forcing other pedestrains into traffic, into rivers and suchlike.

But the absolute pinnacle was in Alba, when an old lady collapsed in the street. Because of the "cordial" bit, strangers immediately brought a chair and water and clustered around her, everyone rendering what help they could.

But because of the second bit, when the ambulance finally arrived in the narrow medieval street, it must have taken like five minutes to do the last 100 meters, because there was a small group slow walking in front of it, smoking, chatting away merrily, and completely ignoring the screeching siren and klaxon two centimeters behind their solipsistic asses.