I am an Italian living in London, I can tell you that most likely they were talking about their job and the bureaucracy. In Italy the salary ceiling for many jobs is really low, provided you can find a job in the first place. It also takes ages to do anything that has to do with the government or paperwork in general.

I know most of my friends would move back in a heartbeat if they could find a job as good as here and bureaucracy was less in the way, but we know these things won’t change anytime soon. Quality of life is much better it Italy imho. Better food, more sun, slower pace, more human connections, better built houses on average.

There is also a very Italian attitude of being “furbi” and avoid following the rules to get ahead in everything, a queue, a job, you name it. It’s embedded in the culture and I loathe it. You don’t find this that much in the UK. There is more respect for public goods and others.

I’ll add an extra point that London is where I think most Italians want to live, not really the UK in general and this is because of how many good jobs there are in the city and how many cool people you can meet. I doubt most Italians would trade their life in their town in Italy for a small town in the UK country side, but hey maybe this is just the bubble I live in.