I'd say second world. I've visited Italy many times but only been as south as Rome, the rest is just too hot for me during the times I'm free. I'd love to see it one day.
But anyway, the north is a wealthy place, where people seem to do live prettty good and are as affluent as any Northern-European or American people. In Rome, the squalor begins. But in these globalised times it seems that even the Mezzogiorne as a coveted place to be for immigrants, although it's just a gateway to the reat of Western Europe for many of those. But the mass immigration from the south of Italiy has stopped. I guess people must be really almosst starving to do such a thing. Why would anyone give up a life in Africa to sell cheap sunglasses an other crap in Italy. Always wondered about that.