One of the reason of the Italians have resisted the exploration around the world is an interesting matter to explain. One reason to mention is the case of atlantic for example.
Some authors have explained that the Atlantics voyages mainly were for business reasons. The Portugueses and Spanish wanted to find an alternative route to India where valuable spices were produced.
They wanted an alternative because the italians had a monopoly on the most direct route. For this reason the italians did not need look for a different route as they already had one.