Giuseppe Verdi, the country’s passionate Italian composer, put it best when he said: “You may have the universe if I may have Italy.” Having lived in five other European countries, I can personally attest to the fact that Italians remain uniquely adept at the art of living life.

However, along with its glittering culture, other more pernicious stereotypes of Italy have remained all too true. A watchword for weak and ever-changing governments, political instability, bureaucratic sclerosis, and a thicket of regulations too opaque to understand, Italy has often seemed to endure in spite of itself. As one American libertarian friend of mine put it, Italy is far and away his favorite country because it has proved a people can thrive without having any discernible government at all.