Leonardo Bonucci has blamed Italy's Brazil 2014 disaster on over-confidence and a "holiday-like" atmosphere at their training base which left the players feeling detached from the whole World Cup experience.

For the second successive edition, four-time champions Italy crashed out of the first round of the World Cup following a final group defeat to Uruguay.

Immediately after that decisive game, coach Cesare Prandelli resigned, throwing the Azzurri into crisis and leading to the appointment of former Juventus handler Antonio Conte.

Bonucci, whose Juventus side host Roma in a much-anticipated top-of-the-table clash on Sunday, said Italy were convinced they were among the strongest teams at the tournament.

But while he refused to criticise Prandelli, the Juventus defender pointed the finger at misfiring striker Mario Balotelli, who scored the winner against England in Italy's Group D opener but failed to hit the net in their two successive games.

"He has to learn to integrate into the squad," Bonucci said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport Saturday.

"There's no queston he's an amazing player. The problem is that sometimes he inexplicably isolates himself from everyone else."

Bonucci, however, said Italy were too sure of how they would perform in Brazil.

"We left (for Brazil) convinced we were among the strongest teams... and perhaps we were a little too confident in ourselves," he added.

"But our team base was a little too holiday-like. It was an amazing resort, with the beach and the sea practically next door. Even the training ground at our camp was a handicap.

"We needed 20-30 minutes to get there, we had to wade through crowds of people, many of whom were brandishing banners and shouting insults at us... so basically we didn't feel part of the whole World Cup experience.

"It probably wasn't the best environment to prepare for the World Cup, especially as some of the players hadn't had experience of dealing with the pressure that comes with important events like that."

Italy began their World Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over England in Manaus but the Azzurri's second round hopes began to unravel following a 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica in Recife.

It left Prandelli's men requiring a draw against Uruguay in Natal, but in a group decider which saw Luis Suarez remain on the pitch despite biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini, the south Americans went on to win 1-0.

Italy recently kicked off their Euro 2016 Group H qualifying campaign with a 2-0 win over Norway. Conte will on Saturday name his squad for upcoming qualifiers against Azerbaijan and Malta.

Bulgaria and Croatia also feature in Group H.