Following a night of Oscar glamour for many Italians, a rude awakening awaited the star-struck dreamers on Monday. It would not be a colossal exaggeration to assert that the eurozone’s future hangs in the balance as Italians prepare themselves for a new government which might very well make or break the euro. Most analysts are convinced that the big winner will be Pier Luigi Bersani, head of Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party while the hopeful comeback-kid, and fiscally and sexually irresponsible, Silvio Berlusconi will be the big loser.

Time and time again Italians have forgiven the bombastic Berlusconi for his fiscal and sexual misdemeanours and antics, but it seems that the seriousness of the country’s economic situation has conveyed a welcomed dose of solemnity into the hearts and minds of Italians. A rejection of Berlusconi would raise smiles in Brussels and elsewhere where the future of the single currency is cause for concern.

Only a few years ago, most euro-enthusiasts would claim that Italy is too productive and big to fail, but recent years have revealed that Italy, along with Spain and Greece, is the sick man of Europe. Italy’s chaotic beauty, so symptomatic of the Italian predicament, is in danger of losing its beauty.

The widely celebrated Italian author, Umberto Eco observed once that “Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don’t. Don’t evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo”.

However, people and cultures change. Serious times require serious measures and it is possible that even Italians are capable of change, of course as long as change doesn’t mean giving up on the indulgence of fine food and arts, a self-confessed connoisseur of Italian culture would argue.