interesting thats brought up because I did a DNA test and I cluster closely to Italians too, primarily Tuscans, these are my DNA results.
My DNA markers are Middle Eastern (J1C3 P58)
> DodecadOracle(c(11.02, 31.97, 28.74, 0.15, 15.43, 1.18, 1.32, 1.08, 0.62, 6.60, 1.83, 0.17, k=30))
[,1] [,2]
[1,] "Tuscan_X" "11.1135"
[2,] "Tuscan_H" "11.6016"
[3,] "TSI" "12.18"
[4,] "Slovenian" "16.6117"
[5,] "Romanians_14" "16.8921"
[6,] "O_Italian_D" "17.3175"
[7,] "Ashkenazy_Jews" "17.5779"
[8,] "N_Italian_D" "17.706"
[9,] "Hungarians" "18.9005"
[10,] "Balkans_D" "19.3583"
>
This is very similar to Dr Mcdonalds results indicating a cluster with Tuscan Italians and Jewish listed as about a quarter ancestry. Many Jews seem to cluster close to Italians and Greeks, Levantine populations including Assyrians seem to cluster closer to Southern Europeans as well.
Also let me explain about what these tests mean, it does not mean that Jews are closely related to Italians, how these tests determine is based on your admixture and who would have similar admixtures, Italians have very similar features and genetics to Jews primarily because they are a Mediterranean people.
I can't complain though as I do like Italian food.