It's just very sad to see Italy stumbling along. I first visited when I was 19. The place blew me away. I couldn't believe that a single country could contain so much beauty, from the landscape, to the history, to the culture, the food and the people (who were both gorgeous physically, and had an infectious spirit that I've only seen matched in Brazilians). Simply blew me away. I decided then to teach myself Italian, and did, and have been back to Italy somewhere around a dozen times. This last trip was the first time I'd been back in 5 years, and people are worried, and despondent. The country has had 60 governments since World War II - that's an average of a new national election every year. The political instability hurts business, hurts reform, hurts Italy's efforts to modernize with the new Europe. I'm told even the Mafia is back with a vengeance. Berlusconi sounds like he got enough of a mandate to perhaps push through some direly-needed changes, but many wonder why he'd follow through on promises now that he ignored the first two times he was prime minster before. Just such a lovely country. But as I've said before, Italy isn't the only great nation to fail to reach, and perhaps even squander, its potential.
