Well, Italians tend to be quite un-nationalistic in that sense, but yeah, I'm under the impression that some of them would be pissed off by foreigners criticizing Italian institutions even though they would agree with the same criticism coming from a fellow Italian. (As someone-I-can't-remember-and-Google-is-failing-me said, insults hurt more when they're truthful.)

EDIT: What paper-machine said seems very relevant. Italians tend to be very pissed off when they perceive Italian institution to succumb to foreign pressure.