The country's two main warring coalitions both ran in this month's elections on platforms promising to lighten the financial burden of average Italians. Proposals ranged from eliminating unpopular real estate taxes, subsidizing dental care or even giving free books to the poor. Only when the new government takes office next month will Italians see which promises are kept.
If the future is a distressing question mark, the Roman couple, like many Italians, blame the rising feeling of precariousness on at least one major event rooted in the recent past: the introduction of the euro as legal tender in 2002.
