As an Italian, I agree with the idea that federalism and the consequent choices of some regions such as Lombardy on public health have contributed to making the epidemic so serious in Italy.

However, it should be emphasized that the hard lockdown has accepted with a spirit of sacrifice and respected by the vast majority of Italians. This helped to slow down the spread of the virus first and to stop it later (at the moment, 03/06/2020 we have about 300 new cases per day, many regions have 0 cases.).

I think it will be necessary to investigate further to understand why the epidemic has hit some areas of Northern Italy (some of richest of the country) so hard and not others.