Yes, California, Washington State, and New York easily beat most other places on the planet when it comes to IT, including Italy. 30 years ago, when high-tech meant electronics, Japan was a leader. When high-tech meant mechanics, Germany was one of the leaders. Now, high-tech increasingly means digital, and the language of the digital age is English. Places where close to 100 percent speak English at a high level at a young age have an advantage.
I visit Italy almost every year, and it's one of the places in the rich world with most immigrants. They literally drown trying to reach Italian shores. Yes, it's not of the highly skilled type, but they are foreign and they want work.
Whereas Italian democracy and public administration leaves something to be desired, Italy didn't have a near coup in 2021, and Italian parties are not busy trying to win elections by preventing voters from other parties from voting. It's whole legal system is not so fragile that half its population cares whether one octogenarian justice dies during what they consider the wrong president.
From a startup perspective, Italy is not where it happens right now, but neither is the US Midwest. Italy's population is very old, and it's not a leader in the English speaking digital economy. Let's see what happens.