The stories are set, for the most part, in the 1940s and 1950s, in rural post-World War II Italy. Some of the values presented, especially in the books, haven't aged very well.
The frequency with which people beat their children (young and adult alike) and how that doesn't cause the minimal stir among any of the characters can be truly astonishing.
In one story, a man hits his fiancee with an iron poker, then proceeds to shave her head to prevent her from participating to a beauty pageant. Her parents approve of this. At the end of the story, the couple still ends up marrying.
Maybe more of a dissonance in priorities than in values, but it's worth noting that not even one of the issues that Don Camillo is confronted with throughout the series revolves around anyone's homosexuality. Which, of course, would be the very first topic anyone in America and certain parts of Europe today would think of when asked to come up with a story about a Catholic priest.
It could be argued that the positive portrayal of a Catholic priest is in itself an example of Values Dissonance. People more acquainted with literature and cinema from countries like America or Germany would surely expect some sort of reveal that Don Camillo had only been working towards his own selfish goals to begin with, possibly even towards some sort of outright evil conspiracy. Needless to say, they will be left quite confused when no such reveal ever happens.
Films
Adaptation Displacement: Many people know Don Camillo and Peppone only from the Fernandel/Gino Cervi movies, which is one of the reasons why they say the stories are set in Brescello, because that is what the place is called in the films, and the real-life town of Brescello is where the films were shot. In the short stories and books, even those written after the first films came out, the town is never named, and it appears to be a composite of a number of places in the Po valley.
Fridge Brilliance: Peppone initially wanted to call his son "Lenin Libero Antonio", but eventually changes it in "Libero Antonio Camillo Lenin". According the laws of the time, it was illegal to give a child a foreign name such as "Lenin", so he eventually put it fourth... And, according to the law, the "Lenin" wouldn't get on the birth certificate (Italian law fixed the number to three). As for why he tried in the first place, he's illiterate and likely didn't know, and someone told him after his fistfight with Don Camillo.
Sequelitis: The first two films with Fernandel and Gino Cervi are generally well regarded by French critics. The last three, much less so. Depending on how one sees the sixth film, Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi, as a sequel or standalone film, it is still generally considered as the worst (worse than even The Remake by Terence Hill).
