talking to our local alimentari owner today he as saying business has got noticably worse in the last 2 months. Is that the general consensus that it has recently worsened? I know Italy has been limping along for a while now

From all accounts it would appear so. I was reading an article in the International Herald Tribune the other day about a spate of suicides across Italy because of business failures and mounting debts.

I have many friends that have businesses here and they all say that trading is the worse they have ever known, this combined with even extra taxes and bureaucracy that have been introduced over the last few months have been crippling them

It seems that once again Italy is at the forefront of the current crisis and is still in deep trouble. According to a leaked document the economy will shrink as much as 1.2% this year and in four years time Italy will be in a worse position than Spain with servicing it's debts.

I think the problem is apart from a poorly run economy, Italy is also losing the battle against rampant corruption (which has seen several local authorities closed down recently) This corruption is having a knock on effect.

Tourism is also way down, this is also in part to do with the all too frequent strikes that have been occurring in Italy.

Having said all that, I must agree with the people that have written that the Italians don't exactly help themselves what with the short opening hours of their shops and closing for lunch.

Completely agree with Frank, it's getting worse by the day.

I was speaking to a German friend last night in Monaco and she said that the Germans were getting very disgruntled about about how much (public) money is being pumped into Italy to keep it afloat. Italy is seeing it's biggest exodus of money and people since the 60's.

As to the corruption, you only have to look at a towns like Ventimiglia and other towns along the coast here that desperately need a facelift. The infrastructure is crumbling as money that should be used to maintain the town is being used to line pockets instead.

One thing I have noticed is that recently there has not been many Italians around in Monaco of a Friday and Saturday night, where as a couple of years ago there were many. Is this also a sign of of the Italian problem?

Found this:
http://diocesi.riviera24.it/articoli/2012/04/20/131462/a-causa-della-crisi-assistiamo-ad-una-lunga-serie-di-suicidi

very sad but I dont think this is just an Italian problem. The French are making themselves heard at the moment and they dont seem very happy with the status quo

I'm up in the North and it seems to be scary bad up here. Places that have been here for as long as I've been coming here, about 20 years, are closing down. Is anyone thinking of leaving? I know we think about it sometimes.....

Bertie, you're right of course, it isn't just an Italian problem, but Italy along with Spain, Greece and Portugal it has the biggest problems due to it's lousy handling of the economy (over many years) and widespread corruption.
Also due to the size and scope of Italy's problems, it is giving the Eurozone its biggest headache.

Slsm, certainly as I wrote a lot of Italians are leaving as is their money!! I have several friends that have either gone back to their own country or have gone to live over the border in France.