that an average person in Italy makes anything near "much more than South Koreans".

It's probably due to your imagining that people in Milan who are frequent flyers are "average Italians".

One can buy a 250 old country house in Italy's Molise for 30,000 euro. For that money you cannot buy a pigsty in South Korea, or indeed in other European countries.

Italy is bankrupt, and the only reason it is in the EU and Turkey is not is ebcause the Coal-and-Steel-whatever-it-was 50 years ago was signed at Rome and not at Constantinople.