La societa delle corporazioni: notaries, tax accountants, pharmacies, newsagents and tobocannists who have a monopoly on the sale of tram and metro tickets, families inheriting beach umbrella concessions, il salotto buono of Mediobanca, legal insider trading, fixed store opening hours, price-fixing, no anti-trust laws.

Welcome back to the guilds of the middle ages.

Complete the picture with the church and the mafia.

I lived there (Milano e Mandello del Lario) for 16 years. Going to ski there again in ten days. But I'd never live there again. L'Italia in cui si vive non e l'Italia che si visita.