Italian Beams

When I first got interested in amateur radio in the 1960s, we heard lots of Italians, many with big signals that were often poor. In recent years there are still Italians on, but with much better signals. On our holiday (as I usually do - call me sad) I notice how many HF beams I see. So far, I have only seen a couple and these could be CB antennas. I was expecting far more.