What can the U.S take from Italy for Health Promotion?

I think that the United States could learn a lot from Italy in terms of health promotion. First off, and possibly most importantly is the diet. Italians eat much better than Americans overall. Much of the Italian food here is fresh food, which is the opposite of the American food we eat daily. Almost all of it is processed foods, whereas Italians make their food every day. It is all much more fresh. When you get a pizza in America it is really greasy. However, even the smallest roadside stand here has pizza that has no trace of grease. Even the popular Italian dessert, Gelato (a favorite of mine) is much healthier when compared to its United States counterpart, ice cream. Overall, their diet is simply healthier.
Another thing that the U.S can take from Italy is the lifestyle. Italians walk everywhere. If they are not walking they are bicycling. That is why in the two months I have been here I have not seen one overweight Italian person. They are all healthy people. If I had spent two months in America I would have seen hundreds of overweight people, but here in Italy I did not see one. They seem to learn this lifestyle very early on. The parks you see everyday are always packed full of kids playing, couples walking, and people walking dogs. Parks in the United States are seldom packed.
While there are many things that the United States can learn from Italy, there are also many things that Italy can learn from us. For one thing, many more Italian people smoke than American people do. I often make the joke that I have second hand smoked far more than my fair share in my two short months here in Italy. Everyone smokes everywhere. At Termini, in the cafés, airports, outside of the basilicas, anywhere any time they will smoke if they can. This is obviously a very unhealthy activity that they do much more than Americans. Also, the sanitation in hospitals is lower (at least based off of our experience at the hospital at San Giovanni). Nurses were touching babies without gloves on. This would not have happened in the United States under any circumstances.
Overall, I think we can learn a lot from the Italian people in terms of health promotion. If we could learn to maintain a healthier diet and a more active lifestyle America would be in a much better place in terms of our health. McDonalds can be found every couple of miles in America. However here in Italy I have only seen three, and the food at these fast food is much more (take a guess) fresh. The diet and lifestyle of them is simply ahead of that of the Americans.