Lovino Vargas (South Italy/Romano)
Height: Unknown
Age: 23 (appearance)
Birthday: March 17th
Romano represents South Italy and is the older brother of (North) Italy by a few years, though people often mistake them for twins. He's got dark brown hair—creator Hidekaz Himaruya attributes this to Arabic ancestry and a generally "dark" personality. His eyes are brown in the anime and recent official art, though earlier designs showed them as green with an olive complexion. Like his brother, he sports a curly ahoge sticking out on the right side of his head.
The two grew up knowing of each other but never actually met until after their grandfather Rome died. They got separated again when Austria took Italy north and Spain claimed Romano for the south. Even after Italy unified the country, they struggled to get along. Italy loves his little brother unconditionally, but Romano mostly brushes him off and pretends to ignore him—mainly out of jealousy. Italy was Spain's favorite, inherited their grandfather's artistic talent, and apparently looks more like Rome than Romano does. Deep down though, Romano does care; he just wishes Italy would actually admire him instead.
Spain raised Romano in South Italy, and he worked as a maid around the house—though he was pretty lazy about it, constantly napping or refusing to help. When he did pitch in, he was clumsy as hell. Still, Romano picked up Spain's religious practices, customs, and an obsession with tomatoes. He always treated Spain coldly and acted like he hated him, but that's mostly an act; he's actually got genuine affection for the guy underneath and gets jealous seeing Spain with others. Their bond remains solid to this day.
Romano absolutely despises Germany with a passion. He's tried getting revenge multiple times for hanging around Italy and forcing him to eat German food—all unsuccessful, much to his frustration. He seems to hate Germans across the board, something rooted in his childhood. According to him, they're all "uncivilized country bumpkins with bad physiology." France doesn't win him any favors either.
His personality gets described as "dark" with a "bleak and biased" worldview, probably because the mafia constantly pushes him around. He comes across as tougher than Italy, but he's actually just as cowardly and weak underneath. He loves pasta and tomatoes but refuses foreign food—potatoes and cheese especially trigger him. He's flirty and charming around women but rude and antisocial with men. His typical day involves hitting on girls, taking siestas, cooking, and farming. Weirdly enough, he's a skilled pickpocket despite being clumsy and not great with his hands. He curses constantly, throwing around "dammit" and "bastard" like punctuation, and makes the random noise "chigi" when annoyed—his version of Italy's "veh."
His human name, Lovino, literally means "the wine" in Italian, while his last name Vargas is actually a common Spanish surname, not Italian at all.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
