In 1992 Italy was ripe for revolution. Despite its 52 post-war governments, Italian politics were stable to the point of rigor mortis, and the price of stability was corruption on a scale not previously seen in a democracy. Suddenly, the parties that had been re-elected for almost 50 years were being abandoned by the voters in their millions. Matt Frei, the BBC's Southern European correspondent, catalogues the extraordinary changes that have restored neo-fascists to power and installed the world's first media-tycoon prime minister, and questions whether we are witnessing a genuine revolution, or just a colourful experiment in a country that has become the laboratory chamber of European politics.