Why does the Italian Navy have glass bottoms on their boats?

So they can look at the old Italian Navy.

The Italians did perform absolutely abysmally in the war. A few isolated units (the Bersaglieri) fought well, but the vast majority were just rank amateurs at warfare. I think that perhaps this is why historians tend to deride the Italians under Mussolini generally. You have, essentially, three military campaigns undertaken and three failures (North Africa, Southern France and the Balkans). Oh, and let's not forget how the Italian air force bombed their own ships during the Battle of Taranto.