Every civilized man has two homelands: his own, and Italy...
... wrote famed author Henryk Sienkiewicz. Centuries of Italian influence in Poland, the impact of Italians on Polish culture, architecture and art has resulted in the fact that, to this day, Italians arriving in Poland are very surprised to meet people here with a personality, mentality, character and temperament closer to their own than any other country, even neighbouring ones, wrote the Polish diplomat Jan Gawronski, in the 1970s.