[riffraff]

The southern part of a european country is usually the stereotype of the larger nation.

When thinking of the UK the stereotype is the english banker more than the scottish clansmen, for spain is the mediterranean south insted of the atlantic/mountainous north, for italy it's the more noisy&caoithic rome/naples/sicily instead of the mitteleuropeans & industrial milan and turin.

I have no explanation for this though except some pseudohistorical ramblings.

[eru]

How about the Russians? It can get pretty hot in the south in summer there, but everyone is just depicting Russia in winter.

Another funny thing is that part of European countries that's closer to Switzerland tends to be richer. E.g. the north of Italy, and the south of Britain and Germany. (It doesn't work for Belgium, though.)