The strength of Italy?

[Cynical]

Hello everyone,
In regard to the Axis, I really don't know much about Italy and their overall actions, and I am looking to change that.

I was wondering if someone could fill me in abit on how powerful Italy really was during this time period, what was their national unity like, how was production, how strong was the military, what were the standards of life? Just basic questions like this.
Also, how did the other Axis countries look at Italy? I read from a 3rd party source that Hitler really didn't like Mussolini and that he simply aligned with him because he "had to", is there any truth behind this?

In regard to military, were the Italians capable of standing their own ground? And how many battles did they really participate in? I know that Italy had most of the action in Africa, but to my current knowledge, they lost badly, so is this a example of their military strength?

Excited to see the responses!

[Dili]

Italy didn't had indigenous models of aircraft engines for front line aircraft . Most of engines were development of foreign versions. That tells everything you need to know how they were prepared for any war.

It was the only main power that happened.

Italy only entered in war because Mussolini thought it would end some 3 or 4 months later in a big conference where Italy will get Nice(Nizza) zone, maybe Corse(Corsica) and eventually some parts of Tunisia.