Euro, twenty years and it seems like a century. The hard beginning, the joy of the present

How much did a coffee at the counter cost in lire? Few, now, remember it. Because twenty years of euro (January 1, 2002 – January 1, 2022) have erased the memory of the old prices. So much so that, today, it makes a certain impression to recall them. For example, a newspaper was bought for 1,700 lire. A liter of fresh milk with 2,550 lire. 1,300 were not enough for an espresso. It was with one coffee, or rather two, that the Italian history of the euro began.

Naples, January 1, 2002. On the first day of the new currency Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the then 81-year-old president of the Republic, and his wife Franca enter the Gambrinus, historic bar at number 1 in via Chiaia, to enjoy two espressos: “My brother and I insisted on offering them to him, but the president replied, smiling, that he wanted spend the first euros “said the owner of the restaurant, Antonio Sergio. And Arturo, his brother: “We understood that that gesture would go down in history. So, in the confusion, we took the money without giving him the change or the receipt.” What a start, right? Very, very Italian. So much so that Antonio and Arturo have kept the Ciampi lords’ coins framing them together with the period articles.

Another era, definitely. The 65 year old Silvio Berlusconi he was prime minister. John Paul II (1920-2005) lived the last years of his life and pontificate with pain and self-denial. Roma was champion of Italy. And Ronaldo the Phenomenon would soon win, with Brazil, at the age of 25, the World Cup in Korea. But over everything and everyone dominated that strange capital letter crossed by two parallel dashes, the euro symbol (€), which refers to the epsilon of the Greek alphabet and is also the first letter of Europe. The parallel dashes instead? They indicate stability. At least in the beginning, however, there was everything but stability. Indeed, it was like experiencing an earthquake. Newspapers and televisions made an enormous didactic effort to prepare Italians for change.

L’Vicenza Traders Association he even went so far as to compile a booklet entitled Pills against euro sickness . Here are some of them: “Remind customers that the changeover from lira to euro will take place in two months (…) Notice that in the first days of January the rest will still be mainly in lire (…) Establish an adequate cash fund in euro (…) Start giving change in euros when the situation guarantees maximum control of the management of collections (…) Define pricing strategies that do not generate confusion “.

The “pricing strategies” were immediately clear, unfortunately. Thanks to a total absence of controls, what cost 1,000 lire came to cost 1 euro; what cost 10 thousand lire was raised to 10 euros; and so on, doubling. So much so that a gadget, the converter, which seemed indispensable to manage the cohabitation between old and new money (1 euro = 1936.27 lire) soon ended up in the dustbin, destined to cease from 1 March. In fact, coffee was immediately paid for 1 euro without realizing that, in some cases, the increase was higher than 25%. And on petrol and diesel no one spoke, because Italians have always known that at the distributor it is a hopeless take or leave …

Today i discontent of the beginning are outdated. We are happy to travel to Europe without having to go to the bank first to exchange currency. We look forward to the new 2 euro coin, ready in days, which depicts the faces of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellinor, killed by the mafia thirty years ago, in 1992. Finally, we feel protected by the currency to defend which an Italian, Mario Draghi, then governor of the European Central Bank (ECB), pronounced on July 26, 2012, the historic phrase “Whatever it takes” (whatever the cost). And, to top it off, we even enjoy the luxury of celebrating the anniversary from Champions of Europe in charge…