Love it as much as I do, Italy is enough to drive even the most ardent admirer to distraction. As Swiss Tony would say, that Italia is a cruel and fickle mistress. We’ll come to the current economic and political cliff-hanger being played out in Rome and Milan in a moment but first a tale of a typically exasperated Venetian family.

A short while back an elderly couple from la Serenissima went to court in an attempt to get their 41-year-old son finally to vacate the nest. The exasperated mama and papa stated that although their son actually had a job he steadfastly refuses to leave home and demands that his parents continue to wash his clothes and get his pasta on the table at lunchtime and in the evening.

A lawyer from the Italian consumer association Adico sent the man a letter to warn him to leave within six days or face legal action via the Venetian courts who would be asked to issue a protection order for the parents against their son.

“We cannot do it any more,” the poor old boy was quoted as saying. “My wife is suffering from stress and had to be hospitalised. He [the son] has a good job but still lives at home. He really has no intention of leaving.”

This episode on the lagoon is symbolic of the sclerosis that afflicts Italy. This is what the new PM Mario Monti, “the most German of Italian economists,” will have to try to address.  Trying to get anything done, to move forward, to create or grow an idea or a business is painfully difficult. In Italy things simply don’t change which, especially to those visiting as tourists, is one of its principle attractions. The country possesses a bureaucratic attitude that creates a deadening inertia while providing perpetual, jealously guarded employment and the chance to retire in your late 50s on a nice pension.  You’ve never seen “jobsworths” until you’ve met the Italian version.

As a result the Italian economy has been virtually at standstill for the last decade. It will take a superhuman act of political will to get it growing again. This concerns us because, despite being stalled in a lay-by, Italy remains a large economy, big enough to bring the whole Euro edifice down in a way that Ireland, Greece and Portugal couldn’t because they were tiddlers by comparison.

There continues to be a deep culture of conservatism in Italy both in business and politics. There are powerful vested interests in its banks and businesses who will not welcome change. If you get frustrated by retail banking in the UK don’t even think about trying to open an account with the Banca Nationale del Lavoro. This resistance to change together with a national obsession with avoiding tax is something the Italians have in common with their  neighbours over the Adriatic, the Greeks.

Trying to get a decent job – indeed any job – in Italy is painfully hard. If you think that employment red tape is a hindrance to doing business here don’t even think of setting up in Parma or Palermo. (Definitely forget Palermo, as you are likely to encounter a whole host of other issues as you receive an unwelcome visit from various gentleman anxious, in return for a fee, to make sure that nothing untoward happens to you or your premises.) In the world of work the culture of the ‘raccomandazione’ or recommendation  is still rife. What jobs there are dolled out according to who you know and are related to rather than on merit

Italians will not find a huge change of attitude and behaviour easy. Just look at the way they “queue” as an example. Italians are richly amused by the religious way in which Brits patiently stand in line believing naively that it is the fairest way to get your turn. Only the simple-minded obey such rules. In fact, being a bit “furbo” or sly as you edge in from the side is widely admired as a trait necessary to get on in life over there.  And yet. And yet. And yet.

There is hope. There are so many things at which they are unsurpassed. They live in a place of unmatchable natural and built beauty. They have the most glorious cuisine in the world. They lead in style and design because no nation understands better the rules of bella figura. Just look at  MT contributing editor Stephen Bayley’s latest book  “La Dolce Vita:  The Golden Age of Italian Style and celebrity” if you really want to feel envious of a certain highly seductive lifestyle.

No, Italy just needs to work out how to make itself an incey wincey bit more German. And that 41 year old needs to find himself a flat and give his mum and dad a break.