These threats eventually died out, but what many people believed would cripple the reform was the notoriously anarchic nature of the Italian public. It was feared smokers here would show their dissent by simply ignoring the new rules and things would effectively stay as they were in the country's cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs. This possibility seemed all the more likely as bar and restaurant owners threatened not to enforce the law, arguing they are business people, not "sheriffs of the state."

Then January 10 arrived, the clean indoor air law went into effect and, to universal amazement, it was seamlessly accepted by all.

Apart from one notorious customer in a Bologna pizzeria, there was hardly any resistance. The collapse in trade feared by bar and restaurant owners also failed to materialize. Smokers continue to go their local bar for their morning cappuccino and enjoy a plate of pasta at their favorite trattoria later in the day. The only difference is that when they feel like a cigarette, they have to go outside.

The police have confirmed that the level of compliance is remarkably high. In the law's first six months, police carried out over 6,000 checks to make sure the law was being observed, but issued only 300 fines. What's more, most of those fines were not slapped on smokers having a sly ciggie where they should not, but on establishments that had failed to put up No Smoking signs.

"It seems that the Italian people have welcomed with intelligence the protection of public health," said former Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia, the law's architect. The fact that clean indoor air has been accepted so well has led some to argue a few national stereotypes need revising.

"Have we suddenly become respectful and disciplined? No. It's simply that we are not stupid," wrote Beppe Severgnini in Milan-based daily, Corriere della Sera. "When a law is sensible we accept it. And when it is enforced - with penalties and social pressure - we even respect it." The law's success is largely due to the widespread awareness of the dangers of tobacco smoke.

Several polls have shown that support for the law is high among both non-smokers and smokers. "When the law was introduced there was a great deal of skepticism about whether it would be possible to enforce," wrote novelist and university professor Stefano Zecchi in weekly magazine Gente. "Instead the Italian people have shown themselves to be mature and respectful of a law, whose value they are well aware of."