Few Italians speak about "la dolce vita" these days. The "sweet life", when the majority could afford a good standard of living, has been soured by sharp price rises, leaving Italians grumbling about "il carovita" - the costly life.
"It's really terrible, a lot of people can't make their pay last until the end of the month," said Roman market trader holder Vincenzo Prestigiacomo, as customers and colleagues around his fruit and vegetable stall nodded in agreement.
Italians say prices shot up when euro notes and coins hit the streets two years ago. One study estimated that the purchasing power of white collar workers fell some 20 percent between 2001 and 2003.
"We are all getting poorer," said Rosario Trefiletti, chairman of the Italian Consumers' Federation.
"What has emerged from this new Italian reality is that families are no longer buying quality products and this is having a negative impact on Italian companies."
National morale has also been pummelled by a string of scandals, from Italy's own "Enron" meltdown at food firms Parmalat and Cirio to fraud investigations at the country's cherished soccer clubs, formerly a beacon of Italian flair and success.
Chris Williamson, chief economist at the economic research group NTC said Italy risked a "downward spiral where weakness in consumer and business confidence are feeding each other".
Manufacturing growth hit a six-year low last month, something economists are blaming on low consumer confidence, while Italy's once buoyant exports with countries outside the European Union slumped 14.7 percent year-on-year in January.
Statistics show Italians continue to feel the pinch, with inflation coming in at 2.4 percent in February, bucking a downward euro zone trend where average inflation is 1.6 percent.
Popular perception is that costs have risen by much more than official data suggests because small shopkeepers took advantage of the euro to hike the prices of everyday items such as food and drink.
"A mid-price meal used to cost around 30,000 lire. Now it is 25 euros. It's increased much more than inflation," said Salvatore Cascino, manager of a sports centre in central Rome.
The lira, a currency which baffled foreign tourists because of the number of zeros at the end of every price tag, was officially pinned at 1,936.27 to the euro when final euro zone exchange rates were set on January 1, 1999.
Italians complain that when notes and coins came in two years later, many shopkeepers changed their prices so that one euro will buy the same as about 1,000 lire, rather than the almost 2,000 it is officially worth.
The effect on consumer morale has been huge. According to a survey in the daily Corriere della Sera, only one Italian in six foresees an economic upturn in the coming months and just over one in seven sees his or her own finances improving.
Many consumers are angry with politicians for failing to crack down on price increases.
Politicians are busy blaming each other.
When asked about carovita, centre-right Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti laid the blame on former centre-left prime minister Romano Prodi who paved Italy's way into the euro.
"Ask candidate Prodi and his bungled euro," he said.
Prodi, currently president of the European Commission in Brussels, is the unofficial figurehead for Italy's centre-left parties contesting European parliamentary elections in June.
Posters plastered around Rome by his Olive Tree alliance accuse the government.
"Who speculated on the euro? Tremonti for one," reads the caption below a picture of the finance minister's face superimposed on the body of lying boy-puppet Pinocchio.
The poster says the minimum bet on the state lottery used to be 1,000 lire, but was upped to one euro in January 2001 - exactly the kind of price doubling consumers moan about.
Trades unions have called for pay increases to help beleaguered Italian consumers. Berlusconi, on the other hand, favours tax cuts as a way of boosting spending power and, no doubt, his own popularity as elections near.
But with the European Union leaning on Italy to reduce its national debt - 106.2 percent of GDP, well above the EU's target ceiling of 60 percent - and keep tabs on a rising budget deficit, the government may have little room for manoeuvre.
With monetary policy in the hands of a European Central Bank reluctant to cut rates and risk inflation, tax cuts may be Italy's only option, said NTC economist Williamson. "But with the budget concerns, their hands are tied (by EU rules)," he added.
"The traditional way out of the problem would be manipulating the exchange rate coupled with stimulation of domestic demand through tax cuts and lower interest rates.
"In the absence of any of these tools, it's very difficult to see how this downward spiral could be arrested."