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Another example of the propelling force of prosperity is the old Adriatic fishing village of Marzocca. Fifteen years ago, the sole signs of the 20th century in Marzocca were a lone telephone and electricity in the evening. Its population was 300—barefoot, black-hooded women, and fishermen bound to wind and sail. But Italy's general economic strength has created a thriving domestic tourist business, and vacationers have transformed the place. Its population has grown to 3,000; more than a few inhabitants have changed from bricklayers to contractors, and they have built hotels, restaurants and summer houses along 14 miles of beach front. Those who still fish take their catch in motorboats and send it to market in refrigerated trucks.
Admittedly, the new affluence has turned Italy into something of a tourist's paradise lost. Leisurely lunches and long siestas are disappearing because many Italians are too busy; sun-baked piazzas have become parking lots. Incensed at the din around centuries-old monuments, Roman officials have banned cars from many historic areas. More basically, Italians complain about the problems associated with rapid industrialization—snarled traffic, polluted air and a shortage of services. Agnelli recognizes and worries about all that. "While life has improved," he notes, "many problems have become worse because the towns and cities into which people are flowing do not have facilities to cope with them. The schools, hospitals and roads are all insufficient to handle the increased demands. This is, of course, true in all affluent societies."
Italians are discovering that change brings pain along with progress. As in Japan and other recently industrialized countries, old values are being discarded but new ones are slow in coming. Affluence makes for mobility; mobility makes for tension and conflicts. "Ours is a restless society," says Guido Carli, head of the Bank of Italy. "There is upward economic movement, but the institutions are not growing and changing in the same way."
Affluence has shown Italians that they need not accept the status quo, and they are demanding basic social and political changes. Last month, as workers protested higher living costs with a violent one-day general strike, Italy's 26th government since 1945 resigned. The 27th seems broadly based enough to appease all factions in the center-left coalition—Premier Mariano Rumor has 26 Ministers and 57 Undersecretaries—but it is shaky. Last week more strikes broke out in more than 20 cities. In Rome, judges and lawyers staged an angry demonstration outside the Palace of Justice to protest archaic penal codes and an overloaded court system: too many cases for too few judges.
Problems and Protest
Some of Italy's problems are the pains of growth. Students rightly, and riotously, protest in the streets against crammed classrooms and inadequately prepared professors. The universities were