Rome erupted in a damburst of joy, firecrackers, flags and tearful embraces as Italians celebrated their country's World Cup triumph after a nail-biting penalty shootout against France.
Supporters flocked to the center of the Italian capital to vent their delight and relief, scenes echoed in piazzas across Italy from Milan in the north to Messina on the island of Sicily, in the deep south.
Hundreds of young people, many stripped to their underwear, frolicked in the Trevi Fountain in Rome, waving Italian flags and splashing onlookers as ecstasy took hold of natives and tourists alike around Bernini's masterpiece.
"We couldn't miss this," Californian tourist Scott Bern said.
"We heard the final was on, bought some Italian shirts and here we are. It's great Italy won," Bern said after watching the game in a cafe with his family.
In Bibo's Bar across the road from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's party headquarters, pandemonium broke out after Italy's full-back Fabio Grosso buried the decisive penalty.
"It's been a match of intense suffering but we've won it now, and everything's great," shouted waiter Carlo Dilizio, 47, above the din as fireworks lit up the moonlit sky.
"I bought an Italian flag in 1982 [the last time Italy won the World Cup] and I took it out of the drawer the other day to show my son. And I said, let's write 2006 on it, and hope," said Carlo, tears of joy filling his eyes.
Italy's 87-year-old President Giorgio Napolitano attended the final in Berlin with French President Jacques Chirac, and said Chirac had been the first to congratulate him.
But it wasn't a moment to crow: "At certain times, one has to be a little elegant," he told Italian TV.
Prodi, like millions of other Italians, preferred to suffer at home.
"We won by the width of a post," said the prime minister, referring to France's miss during the penalties.
The win, declared a "great victory for clean soccer" by right-wing National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini, will ease the pain over a probe into a match-fixing scandal which has scarred the reputation of Italy's top Serie A teams.
Thirteen of the new world champions play for the four teams at the center of the probe, and still do not know in which division their club will be playing next season, as stiff punishments, including relegation from the lucrative Serie A, are likely.
But in the euphoria following the World Cup victory, such gloom has been put to the back of the collective Italian mind.
At the ancient Circus Maximus, the park where Romans once held chariot races, more than 150,000 people who watched the game on giant screens erupted into a cacophony of noisy revelry.
"I don't believe it. It's a fairy tale, it's just great to win after suffering so much. It's magnifico!" bayed 29-year-old Chiara.
"It's the most beautiful emotion of my whole life, we're the world champions," shouted Giovanni, 23.
It was time to banish bitter memories of losing the 1994 final to Brazil in a penalty shootout.
An Italian TV commentator declared that watching the tense match had caused great suffering: "soffertissimo!"
For others, as the match ground on to extra-time and then to the dreaded penalties, the tension was almost too much to bear as old insecurities came flooding back.
"If Zidane scores another goal I'm jumping in the river, I swear," said Francesco Pignolo, 30, watching with friends at an open-air bar on the banks of the Tiber.
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