Actually they did not hate Sicilians or other Italians. What they do not like is how the Italian government allows a lot of illegal immigrants from Africa who go to the island of Lampedusa, and then to Sicily to mainland Italy.

The illegal immigrants are given free food and housing by the Italian government while a lot of Italians are starving or homeless because of the high unemployment rate. A lot of Italians are not happy about how their country joined the European union as it caused a lot of problems both in the economy and in other ways.

Southern Italians do not hate on other Southern Italians.

But you will see a lot of Northern Italians who hate on Southern Italians. They will claim that they steal jobs, are criminals, etc.

There's even a political party that is all for Northern and Central Italy succeeding from Italy and becoming separate countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_League_(Italy)

http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-immigrants-land-italy-215419829.html

But like what's happening with the illegal immigrants in Italy, this is also happening here in the United States and our government seems to be supporting it when we have lots of people who are homeless (or close to it), without food, and struggling to survive. I'm all for helping people but I think that countries should help their own people or citizens first before just giving away millions of dollars or euros to help people who have entered a country illegally.