The current Italian generation is pretty crap, have to agree. However, I have to emphasise that nationality is a suprisingly important key when building a solid core to the team, hence why I brought up Milan and United earlier: they both boasted plenty of their own international legends, and when they retired at once the teams had no identity anymore. Of course players like Lichsteiner and Mandzukic are perfect examples that you can be of whatever nationality to be a leader in the dressing room, but once the lockerroom becomes a mishmash of foreign mercs all sharing a different culture, language and not understanding the clubs core values, the whole thing becomes a shitshow like Inter. I've seen it happen first hand during my own playing days lol.
I don't want to present anything radical as the pool of Italian players is kinda crap like you both said, but the likes of Verratti, Zaniolo, Chiesa, Romagnoli and maybe even Barrella and Tonali should be good enough to consider. In the end a teams performance isn't actually down to individual players, but how they play together.