According to my parent's generation you're not a man if you haven't fulfilled your national duty in military service. Every year over 250,000 Italian young men are forced to give up 10 months of their life to learn how to march, handle a rifle and answer "yes sir" to their superiors' orders.

The tradition of compulsory military service traces its origins to Macchiavelli and is proscribed in the Italian Constitution, and besides food and national football is probably one of the only unifying features of Italian men.

Though many believe that ten months of rigid discipline and distance from Mum turns the Italian "mammone" (mummy's boys) into men, many young Italians would disagree saying that military service only adds to their already negative attitude toward the Italian state.

It is in the army, where nothing works, from your 60-year-old rifle to antiquated communication systems, that Italian men develop their attitudes of utter indifference to substandard systems of government and infrastructure.
It is also here that Italian men learn strategies that skirt the rules and play on sympathies of those above them - both very useful skills in everyday Italian life.

Worse still the "soft" option of community service (37,800 "volunteers" during 2004 has been turned into a simple case of exploitation, where under-funded Italian statutory services such as museums and kindergartens apply for "volunteers" in order to meet funding and labour shortfalls.

2004 marks the end of this painful obligation for young Italian men as the government phases out compulsory national service. But the threat of the call up is not over until the constitution is changed for good.