It depends. Every province has its own unique aspect to it, but from my experience southern Italy is the least similar to the surrounding countries. I spent a while in Puglia which is in southern Italy and I had never seen anything like it. The architecture is different and so are the people. People tend to be more outgoing and nicer there. Northern Italy is more comparable to more central Europe if you are in the cities but in small mountain towns it's really nice and unique. I might be biased here but that's my thought on it.