We are blessed with a huge number of post-war Italian immigrants, hard-working folks who integrated perfectly and often started businesses around the specialty skills of their old country. Some of that old ethic survives, and if you're lucky, you'll find a gelateria where they still make the icecream from scratch and with natural ingredients. Alas, many have succumbed to the profit and convenience of industrial mixes :-(
Same goes for Italian restaurants. Some are still authentic. Your taste buds will tell the difference and word gets around where it's good and where not. There are more "Italian" trades besides food, like stone sculpting, stucco, tailoring, and what not. This is how immigration should work, but that's a huge subject to discuss elsewhere.
Coming to think of it, around the Rhine and Mosel rivers there are traces of Italian immigration dating back over 2,000 years. The Romans loved it here :-)
Hmm thats interesting. We had some really good gelato in heildeburg. That was the best ice cream we had in the country, I think. I didnt realize that there was such a strong Italian influence in the region. I'm trying to think if we ate at any Italian restaurants during our trip... We did in Wurzburg I believe, and it was quite good.