Italy

Plates: blue strips both sides + distinctly short front plate - the combination is unique

Albania also has two blue strips and France a small right strip - but neither has the short front plate; short front + two strips = Italy.

Albania: Short front plate → Italy; full-length front → Albania.

France: Blue on BOTH sides + short front → Italy; small right-only strip → France.

Bollards triangular, white w/ black top, red front / white rear reflector

Albania: Albanian language + Gen4 quality + poorer roads → Albania.

Very common: solid white outer lines with NO middle line (rarer in other Mediterranean countries)

Italian: double consonants, many i's, ì é à, words end in vowels; street = via; 'Passo carrabile' no-parking signs w/ comune name on top

Mediterranean: farmland on rolling hills + forested mountain valleys

Pastel stone houses w/ terracotta roofs; wooden two-part sideways-opening shutters

Many round concrete poles (unusual for the Mediterranean); wooden poles w/ small white sticker; concrete trident poletops

Double guardrails very common; guardrails w/ red front reflectors (Spain: yellow); distinct endings - flatter, wider, bending away

Spain: Red reflectors → Italy.

Black/dark-grey sign backs common

Germany: German language + landscape → Germany.

Romania: Romanian ă î ș ț → Romania.

Albania: Albanian → Albania.

Directional signs blue w/ white arrow, ALL-CAPS; Strada Statale = blue w/ white-blue border; Autostrade = green; km markers = white squares w/ roman numeral (100 m) over arabic (km); road numbers SS/SR/SP (State/Regional/Provincial)

The roman-numeral km markers and SS/SR/SP codes are Italy-specific; the blue directional signs look like several neighbours'.

Chevrons white on black (also ES/GR/AL); street signs white w/ thin blue border; pedestrian sign 5 stripes, person without belt

Gen4 smallcam coverage

Area codes: first digit increases east, then south; each region has its own flag

South Tyrol = German bilingual signs; Aosta Valley = French on signs (via + rue); Slovene bilingual near the Slovenian border

Po Valley: completely flat + notorious haze (worst air in Europe); rice → west/central Po (+ some Sardinia)

Bari peninsula: olive plantations + bright rock walls + red dirt (SE-Sicily similar); Alps = tall ranges + deep valleys; Sicily = arid hilly farmland + rocky mountains; Sardinia = grey rocks sticking up (esp. NE; Sicily drier); cacti → south (Sicily, S-Sardinia, S-Apulia); citrus → E-Sicily + S-Calabria

Architecture regions: Tuscany = irregular unpainted brown-grey brick (NE-Spain similar); Alpine = white stone + wood; Aosta = grey uneven brick (Andorra-like); Veneto/NE = solid shutters w/ black hinges; Apulia = light flat-roofed 2-3-storey houses (Middle-East vibe); trullo cone roofs = Itria valley only (Alberobello)

Campione d'Italia (exclave in Switzerland): low-cam + long antenna + flag, water to the west (antenna also in parts of CH)

Volcano/city spotlights: Etna towers over E-Sicily; Vesuvius S/E of Naples' plains; Venice = canals; Plana del Fùcino = mountain-ringed plain w/ perfect N-S road grid

Island spotlights: Pantelleria = dark volcanic rock walls + yellow lichen + cacti; Aeolians = volcanic + Mediterranean mix, white tourist villas (Salina = twin-volcano valley; Vulcano = white dirt stripe on the cone); Favignana = N-S mountain spine + Bari-like rock walls, NOT volcanic; San Domino = gloomy overcast Gen2 only