The Italian language has a refined equivalent of the earthier Anglo-Saxon expression about “fecal matter” hitting the fan: “The knots are reaching the comb,” they say in Rome. However you put it, the country is now tottering towards dramatic decline, with a kleptocratic and incompetent political Establishment, a financially bankrupt State, raging corruption, organized crime, a sclerotic and anti-feminist Church, a shambling economy – oh, and of course a few decades of horrible government by a “Bunga-Bunga” Prime-Minister, Silvio Berlusconi – all combining to knock one of Europe’s most vibrant societies on the head. This matters because, while Italy has counted little as a geo-political entity since Roman times, it boxes far above its weight in terms of “soft power.” The country’s hugely influential fashion industry defines female and male beauty for the world, the Roman Catholic Church does something similar for the morals of a billion Catholics as do organized crime “Mafias” in the fields of vice and illegality, while Italian dining is the “fall-back cuisine” for a night out in every corner of the globe.