The Me’am Lo’ez was born to a Crete Family
At the Time there was no Italy and it was a bunch of City States and Crete was part of Venice.
Italy did not become a country until 1870.
IMO there is not likely any other country with such a jewish history as Italy. While other places have had stronger jewish presence and stronger jewish personalities, few other places have had such a long and continous presence as Rome and Italy.
While the Romans did destroy the Bais Hamigdosh and Hadrian removed all jewish character from Jerusalem making it a roman city Aeola Capitala, In Rome itself jews were relatively free and many had the same rights as an ordinary Roman citizen.
While jews were kicked out of many countries (inclding Naples and Scicily) they were allowed to live in Rome and Venice