is the italian better than scotch

You can play "both", and neither of them- AKA the Scotch gambit. These are interesting positions, and certainly enough far from closed.

Certainly for those starting out, both the Italian and Scotch are very good openings to look at as they generally follow good opening principles. Kasparov revitalized the Scotch at the top level in his day, basically demonstrating that it's entirely possible to play it well into one's chess journey.
That being said, even Kasparov used it as a second string to the bow type thing, something to know and use occasionally.
The Italian has more options (more theory) for both sides, and there are top GMs who use it as one of their main 1. e4 e5 weapons. In that sense, the Italian can be seen as better, it's more suited as a primary opening choice no matter how strong one gets. But there is a lot of theory to learn as one climbs the rating ladder. However, that theory will be of use throughout your chess.
The Scotch, however, pairs really well with the Italian, and as mentioned, one also has the Scotch Gambit to consider. If one is an Italian player with White, knowing those is a good idea to supplement your choice.
For one starting out, the Scotch is fine to start with. There's not many lines, and most of the starting points are fairly obvious (so both easy to remember, but more importantly, easy to understand). You'll reach similar middle game positions often, and so will gain experience with regards to how to proceed (in the Italian, you'll have a number of lines and variations starting with Black's 3rd move, so you'll get a wider variety of positions, which has its pro's and con's for a new chess player).
Once you feel confident with the Scotch and are thinking of expanding your white openings, then the Italian is a good choice.
Just don't forget, if Black doesn't respond 1. ... e5, or does but doesn't play 2. ... Nc6, then you don't want to just auto-pilot "your moves"! These are not "system openings" where you just play the same set of moves regardless of what your opponent does. For both, the first moves by both players have to be 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 ... (or more precisely, after both player's have made two moves, that is the position you need to have on the board).

Certainly for those starting out, both the Italian and Scotch are very good openings to look at as they generally follow good opening principles. Kasparov revitalized the Scotch at the top level in his day, basically demonstrating that it's entirely possible to play it well into one's chess journey.
That being said, even Kasparov used it as a second string to the bow type thing, something to know and use occasionally.
The Italian has more options (more theory) for both sides, and there are top GMs who use it as one of their main 1. e4 e5 weapons. In that sense, the Italian can be seen as better, it's more suited as a primary opening choice no matter how strong one gets. But there is a lot of theory to learn as one climbs the rating ladder. However, that theory will be of use throughout your chess.
The Scotch, however, pairs really well with the Italian, and as mentioned, one also has the Scotch Gambit to consider. If one is an Italian player with White, knowing those is a good idea to supplement your choice.
For one starting out, the Scotch is fine to start with. There's not many lines, and most of the starting points are fairly obvious (so both easy to remember, but more importantly, easy to understand). You'll reach similar middle game positions often, and so will gain experience with regards to how to proceed (in the Italian, you'll have a number of lines and variations starting with Black's 3rd move, so you'll get a wider variety of positions, which has its pro's and con's for a new chess player).
Once you feel confident with the Scotch and are thinking of expanding your white openings, then the Italian is a good choice.
Just don't forget, if Black doesn't respond 1. ... e5, or does but doesn't play 2. ... Nc6, then you don't want to just auto-pilot "your moves"! These are not "system openings" where you just play the same set of moves regardless of what your opponent does. For both, the first moves by both players have to be 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 ... (or more precisely, after both player's have made two moves, that is the position you need to have on the board).
omg this is so detailed THANK YOU so much for taking the time to write this, i appreciate it very much
A Perfect Italian game played by Stockfish
Watch on Youtube
Copy the Link for the video
https://youtu.be/tY5wrpMleWo

A Perfect Italian game played by Stockfish
Watch on Youtube
Copy the Link for the video
https://youtu.be/tY5wrpMleWo
thanks, but Italian is kind of too positional for me

A Perfect Italian game played by Stockfish
Watch on Youtube
Copy the Link for the video
https://youtu.be/tY5wrpMleWo
thanks, but Italian is kind of too positional for me
It doesn't have to be, although at the top level the GM's tend to favour the most quiet versions. However, for those of us who are not facing superGM opponents, there are some very aggressive lines to consider if Black responds 3. ... Bc5 (I'm going to set aside the Two Knights, where Black plays 3. ... Nf6, not because it's uncommon, but it's a different beast).
Here's a few of my own games. The first is from a weekly chess match I used to play with a buddy of mine at the pub (he's moved away, so sadly that has come to an end). The others are against various computers (the Antonio-Bot and Sven-Bot are Chess.com bots, and the "phone level 10" game is a chess app on my phone at it's highest level - which was tough but did occasionally lose its mind on some games).
Anyway, here's the game against my friend (the line is referred to as "Bird's Attack", and begins at White's b4 move):
And the following two are the Moeller Attack, which is basically the line up to 9. d5 ... . In both of these computer games, the computers follow a very old line, which gives White a devastating attack. This old line is still worth knowing, although if one adopts this there will be some study required. The 2nd game, technically, isn't the Moeller attack (I forgot 9. d5 ..., which defines the Moeller Attack), but at least it takes the game along different territory.
And of course, there's Evan's Gambit! I keep meaning to put some work into this, but I admit I've not gotten around to doing that. The only time I've played it recently is this one game against the Sven-bot (which is pretty awful, but it's all I've got). I played it once before in my life, against another friend I used to play chess with back in the 90s, but I can't locate that game and as I recall, it wasn't a very good game (I won, but only due to later blunders where my buddy snatched defeat from the jaws of victory).
Anyway, there are other aggressive lines (the Max Lang, for example), that are also worth looking at. Generally, the lines where White doesn't play d3 early are far more aggressive, while the d3 lines are more positional.
i like attacking games where opponents dont get to transpose into closed play
but i am also a low elo player lol