You chose: italy

Whether enthusiasts for Obama or for Romney, countless Italians have been remarking, with open envy, that the U.S. presidential election showed that a clear choice could be made, and was. Here, with national general elections looming within five months or less, all is still opaque.

Berlusconi, who has dominated Italian politics for over seventeen years, is not leaving the political scene just yet. What happened?

For over three decades Gore Vidal spent six months a year in Italy, living between Rome and the magnificent southern town of Ravello, on the Amalfi coast. He was proud that Federico Fellini had given him a role in his movie Roma, where he played himself. And he was proud as a peacock when the city of Ravello made him an honorary citizen. The eminent guerrilla fighter who used words like a bazooka loved everything Italian—including the Italians. "Left to themselves, the Italians work out a fine balance between anarchy and order. When times are bad—or good—the balance shifts this way or that. But the nice balance, sooner or later, is restored. Fundamentally, Italians hate both anarchy and order. This is very human." A first-hand portrait by a reporter who happened to meet him often.

No matter the outcome of this final match, Italy was undisputed protagonist of this championship. Remembering the past inglorious performances at 2010 World Cup nobody would have expected that the Italian team could grow so much within a few years and arrive so easily to the Final of Euro 2012.