If the doomsayers are right, Italy, now led by the Far-Right populist Giorgia Meloni, has entered a death-spiral from which there can be no escape this side of the Second Coming. As usual, however, the doomsayers are wrong. Italy is certainly in trouble – which European county isn’t? – but though it is down, it certainly isn’t out.
Viewers of the travel and food show Searching for Italy, presented by the American film actor Stanley Tucci, will have been greatly cheered by its depiction of a country that, while trapped on the down escalator in recent years, remains united in its diversity and determined to get on with life as it should be lived.
