"Sono l'italiano vero!" - Toto Cutugno

Toto Cutugno. Toto Cutugno..
Does this name ring a bell in your memory? A 35-year old memory to be more precise. It never did for me until I faced it right there in St-Petersburg where it seemed like the city was dressed in the images of aged Toto Cutugno. I never questioned the great Russian love for everything Italian: Italian food, Italian shoes, Italian men.. But Italian songs and the Russian awareness of their existence was overwhelming. I never thought "an Italian song" meant that of Toto Cutugno. I also never thought that in Italy noone probably knows Toto Cutugno, when in Russia he was almost a national hero with his name all over the cultural capital.
Can it be that the Russian love for everything Italian has overgrown all possible sizes and became an addiction: to food, shoes and disturbingly handsome men?
As for Italian songs and that particular one..  Sometimes it makes me think of how we sometimes underestimate our own culture and maybe forget it. And maybe we should not drop the price to minumum, when in someone else's eyes we are still of the great value.
P.S. Dedicated to Russian women and Italian music.