First, the balance argument:
A unified Italian culture is OK when we have Italy ruled by Italians, as it were. But in fact, lots of outside powers have events getting them involved in parts of Italy: in the north we have Swabians, Hungarians, and Savoyards (from what MattyG has said); in the south we have Byzantines and even Almohads. But in none of these cases do we want the new arrivals to rule happily over places in the North and the South.
Now for the institution-based split:
In the north is the Kingdom of Italy, Imperial laws and customs, and quite an urban society. Strictly, these people are the only true Italians in 1419. As such we could mostly limit italian culture to the HRE's borders.
In the south is the Kingdom of Sicily, another long-standing entity and a major to boot. The culture here could be crudely summed up as 'less German, more Greek/Arab', though of course there are other factors at work. Obviously insular Sicily is Sicilian, but its ties to Naples and the boot of Italy are strong enough that there's no point dividing it from those provinces as well. Historically Sicily was probably the chief outside influence on Maltese culture, so they can be Sicilian as well.
That leaves a few distinct cultural regions in the middle:
1. Venetian region, provinces Veneto, Istria and maybe Mantua
2. Ecclesiastical region, provinces Roma, Marche and Romagna
3. Corsica
4. Sardinia
Now I certainly don't propose each of these be given a separate culture slot. Rather:
1. Given Venice's absorption by Genoa, its similarities to the merchant cities to the west, and the fact that most powers aspiring to Venice would have a big role in the KoI as well, there's no harm in keeping this zone italian.
2. This can have its own culture. No-one but the Pope may legitimately rule the Patrimony of St. Peter. These might only be 3 provinces, but they form an important dividing line.
3. This has very strong ties to Genoa and Tuscany, so might as well stay italian.
4. Sardinia's a bit of a weird one. The local language, for instance, contains many words from pre-Roman languages, such as Phoenician. Lumping it with the Papal States would make it wrong-culture for both Genoa and Sicily, but isn't justifiable in terms of the locals. The best we can do is probably to make it Sicilian, as the italian culture zone already has enough going on, and certainly the island would be towards the Greek/Arab end on the 'Greek/Arab vs German influence' measure.
How does this translate to countrycultures?
As usual, minors have their home culture and no others. No problems there.
Papal States gets 'ecclesiastical'.
Genoa obviously has primary culture italian, but they also start firmly in charge of Sardinia and Malta, and with shakier claims on Sicily proper. For this to work they should either start with Sicilian or be able to get it easily. Certainly, Genoa should get Sicilian more often than it gets any other culture.
Sicily has Sicilian. They can increase the reach of their culture in North Africa. If some strange turn of events leads to the Pope giving up his temporal power over Marche and Romagna, he'd probably give it to Sicily rather than the dreaded HRE and its constituent states, so Sicily just *might* get ecclesiastical.
The big prize for a westward-focused Byzantium can be sicilian culture. This makes much more sense than the old 'all-or-nothing' offer of italian culture, both culturally and in terms of balance. As bobtdwarf says, the people in the south were as much Italic-speaking Greeks as true Italians.
Hungary shouldn't get any Italic cultures. Venice is the limit of their (semi-)legitimate ambition, and that's just one province (Istria takes on a Slavic character under Hungarian rule).
If Swabia inherits Milan, they get italian. Hopefully a Swabia with german and the reduced italian won't be too unbalanced, given its culture zone would stop at the edge of the HRE.
If the Almohads take over Sicily and Malta, they can get sicilian, probably at some cost (eg they have to convert Sicily first). This would remove the need for suquli culture. If Sicily really gets hammered, who knows, maybe it'll be the Pope who fights the Muslims for physical and cultural control of Naples and Apulia, so the ecclesiastical/sicilian border could also end up as part of the frontier between Christendom and dar al-Islam.
As part of the HRE, Savoy may get italian culture. I don't know what's planned for Savoy ATM, but if everyone who can go for Imperial Italy does so, it could be quite a fight.
A unified Italian culture is OK when we have Italy ruled by Italians, as it were. But in fact, lots of outside powers have events getting them involved in parts of Italy: in the north we have Swabians, Hungarians, and Savoyards (from what MattyG has said); in the south we have Byzantines and even Almohads. But in none of these cases do we want the new arrivals to rule happily over places in the North and the South.
Now for the institution-based split:
In the north is the Kingdom of Italy, Imperial laws and customs, and quite an urban society. Strictly, these people are the only true Italians in 1419. As such we could mostly limit italian culture to the HRE's borders.
In the south is the Kingdom of Sicily, another long-standing entity and a major to boot. The culture here could be crudely summed up as 'less German, more Greek/Arab', though of course there are other factors at work. Obviously insular Sicily is Sicilian, but its ties to Naples and the boot of Italy are strong enough that there's no point dividing it from those provinces as well. Historically Sicily was probably the chief outside influence on Maltese culture, so they can be Sicilian as well.
That leaves a few distinct cultural regions in the middle:
1. Venetian region, provinces Veneto, Istria and maybe Mantua
2. Ecclesiastical region, provinces Roma, Marche and Romagna
3. Corsica
4. Sardinia
Now I certainly don't propose each of these be given a separate culture slot. Rather:
1. Given Venice's absorption by Genoa, its similarities to the merchant cities to the west, and the fact that most powers aspiring to Venice would have a big role in the KoI as well, there's no harm in keeping this zone italian.
2. This can have its own culture. No-one but the Pope may legitimately rule the Patrimony of St. Peter. These might only be 3 provinces, but they form an important dividing line.
3. This has very strong ties to Genoa and Tuscany, so might as well stay italian.
4. Sardinia's a bit of a weird one. The local language, for instance, contains many words from pre-Roman languages, such as Phoenician. Lumping it with the Papal States would make it wrong-culture for both Genoa and Sicily, but isn't justifiable in terms of the locals. The best we can do is probably to make it Sicilian, as the italian culture zone already has enough going on, and certainly the island would be towards the Greek/Arab end on the 'Greek/Arab vs German influence' measure.
How does this translate to countrycultures?
As usual, minors have their home culture and no others. No problems there.
Papal States gets 'ecclesiastical'.
Genoa obviously has primary culture italian, but they also start firmly in charge of Sardinia and Malta, and with shakier claims on Sicily proper. For this to work they should either start with Sicilian or be able to get it easily. Certainly, Genoa should get Sicilian more often than it gets any other culture.
Sicily has Sicilian. They can increase the reach of their culture in North Africa. If some strange turn of events leads to the Pope giving up his temporal power over Marche and Romagna, he'd probably give it to Sicily rather than the dreaded HRE and its constituent states, so Sicily just *might* get ecclesiastical.
The big prize for a westward-focused Byzantium can be sicilian culture. This makes much more sense than the old 'all-or-nothing' offer of italian culture, both culturally and in terms of balance. As bobtdwarf says, the people in the south were as much Italic-speaking Greeks as true Italians.
Hungary shouldn't get any Italic cultures. Venice is the limit of their (semi-)legitimate ambition, and that's just one province (Istria takes on a Slavic character under Hungarian rule).
If Swabia inherits Milan, they get italian. Hopefully a Swabia with german and the reduced italian won't be too unbalanced, given its culture zone would stop at the edge of the HRE.
If the Almohads take over Sicily and Malta, they can get sicilian, probably at some cost (eg they have to convert Sicily first). This would remove the need for suquli culture. If Sicily really gets hammered, who knows, maybe it'll be the Pope who fights the Muslims for physical and cultural control of Naples and Apulia, so the ecclesiastical/sicilian border could also end up as part of the frontier between Christendom and dar al-Islam.
As part of the HRE, Savoy may get italian culture. I don't know what's planned for Savoy ATM, but if everyone who can go for Imperial Italy does so, it could be quite a fight.
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Cores do some of the work but they're mainly concerned with diplomatic ease in claiming the area, rather than ease of ruling the place in the long term.
