I must say that although all in all the book is not bad I found the part about Italy quite offensive.
Through the lines Italy comes across as a country of mad people who spend their time yelling in the streets and thinking of how to stuff dull Americans with delicious food...not to mention all the bits about Italian people being useless at languages, taxes, organisation, hard work, etc...
I guess the author should have known better before writing such rubbish. I am sure it wasn't Liz's intention to offend Italians but maybe before claiming that "anywhere in Italy this, anywhere in Italy that" she should have traveled to many more places than just Rome and Naples.