This one's old, and I haven't read it, but it might be worth a look:

http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Backward-Society-Edward-Banfield...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moral_Basis_of_a_Backward_S...

Of course, that's a small village in "the dark heart" of southern Italy 60 years ago, which is very, very different from a larger city in the north these days, so take it with a grain of salt: it's not going to be representative of "Italy".