55 months average Italian engagement
35,1% couples lived together four years or more
54,3% decided to get married before living together
57,4% couples who desire to get married
20,2% lived together while one partners waits for a divorce

The trend of long engagements gets even longer: young couples opt to wait almost five years to wed.
2001 figures are a year more than in 1987, (3.9 years) and the National Statistics Institute points out that as more women are get university degrees, the waiting period stretches. Living together is still a rarity (only 4% of couples) which means the not-so-soon-to-be weds are shacking up with mom & dad and collecting matching china. Here, well, eventually, comes the Bride?

Related resources:
Maybe it’s more than a literary tradition: decide for yourself
after reading about the trials and travails of Renzo & Lucia in Alessandro Manzoni’s potboiler
classic "The Betrothed"

www.sposiweb.net
send wedding announcements via email in Italian
www.allafollia.com
Create your own “couple home page”

36 months of marriage = 50% libido reduction
57% higher risk of arguments if the relationship is too monotonous/too serene
70% of wives would prefer to vacation without husbands
Most likely to benefit from a fling: clerks, accountants and bankers

Forget the “Seven-Year Itch,” three years of wedded bliss is enough to douse the brightest embers.
The solution? According to Italian sex experts: an affair, real or virtual.
“Summer is like what Carnival used to be-the season where anything goes,” comments sex therapist and researcher Alessandra Graziottin. “However, you don’t have to actually cheat. Being courted and flirting can free up the imagination and make you feel desirable again.”

Related resources:
Couldn’t be better time to launch Italy’s first alibi service, where, for a price, would-be lovers can have all the back-up excuses they want. In Italian & French.
http://alibi.hypermart.net

Divorce, Italian style stereotypically conjures up images of crashing plates, raging jealousy and lifelong vendettas. Alas, times change: for a fee, an Italian franchise helps couples break up in “harmony.” Lasciamoci con amore (“Let’s break up with love) charges about $350 USD to facilitate a split without rancor. Divorce is still relatively new in this Catholic country–allowed by a 1974 referendum– and lengthy legal separations (a three-year minimum) mean ending a marriage isn’t taken lightly.

The Lasciamoci etiquette manual for break ups, however, reads more like an American self-help book. Traditionally, Italians would be expected to rely on family for support and advice– while the break up how-to advises:
"Forget about the opinions of friends and family, don’t let them influence you–only you know how things really are." No more is "Divorzio all’italiana" Marcello Mastroianni plotting his wife’s adultery and his subsequent crime of "passion" to justify the split –couples aren’t advised to stay together, even for the kids:

"Think about children, but not only about them. They’ll be more serene if they feel parents are serene too."

At first viewed with curiosity in 1995, agency info is often found in the ?important phone number? sections of newspapers throughout the country?along with emergency info and 24-hour pharmacies.

The franchise, based in Rome with offices throughout Italy, offers other surrogate family services like assessing couple compatibility and advice about infidelity. A separate franchise of the same company, called "Let’s Make Peace" ("Facciamo Pace"), is dedicated to repairing broken relationships and fixing miscommunication between parents and children.
www.lasciamociconamore.it

Cosmetics purchased by Italian men = circa 240 million USD 1999
Shaving cream & Soap = circa 70 million USD
Pre & After Shave products =circa 130 million USD
Face Cream/Lotions = circa 15 million USD
Gift Packs= circa 20 million USD

Italian men are starting to buy into the idea that beauty can be purchased, preferably in a jar or nicely wrapped package–the figures are up a whopping 13 % from 1998. The National Cosmetics Union (UNIPRO), which conducted the study, has only recently started tracking the "strong sex" at the skincare counter. Better keep an eye on this booming segment…