Italia: spaghetti, pizza, mandolino, mamma? Not at all. Well at least, not only. Let me clarify this (once and forever).
I have never seen anyone playing a mandolino live. We Italians don't play mandolino (except maybe some old granpa in Neaples). It's not our traditional music instrument. It has never been. Spaghetti. Yes, we invented spaghetti. But let's face the truth: nowadays everybody eats spaghetti. It's a multicultural meal. Same thing for pizza. As well as the radio (invented by Marconi), the telephone (invented by Meucci, Bell just patented it), Tex Willer and many other things.
But that's history. Maybe you are wondering: what is Italy now? What do Italians (or Eyeties if you like) think and do now, in this very moment? Hard to tell. Italy is a complicated country. Many dialects, many different people and cultures. If you don't speak Italian, and you don't live or have never lived in Italy (that is, never trust an Italo-American), believe me: you can't get to know what happens in Italy.
Well, actually now there is a chance. The most important Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, has a section in English, called Italian life. Unfortunately, that is not a translation of all the news written in Italian, but just a collection of some articles written in the Italian edition. At least it's a good start. If you are interested in knowing not the peculiar news about Italy, but at least what Italian journalists writes about world news, that is a good place to start. Have a nice reading!