Estudios de caso: Italia

This paper describe the italian nightlife according to the findings of a comparative research in Europe about recreational settings. Accordingly with research findings, new tendencies into the recreational scene are emerging. Briefly, it can be said that Italian nightlife has undergone profound changes, on one side as effect of national and local policies, and their attempt to limit the risks associated to the recreational setting (drug and alcohol abuse, risky sexual behaviors, traffic accidents, fights ...); on the other side as a consequence of the deep economic crisis that has involved the country.With regard to the first point (national and local policies), it should be admit-ted that in Italy policy makers consider recreational setting as a high-risk envi-ronments especially for psychoactive substance use. So, in general, the intervention strategy is fairly aggressive.Turning now to the second phenomena which influence nightlife scenario in Italy (the economic crisis), one should point out the dramatic plunge of entertain-ment industry that depends on two distinct processes: the supply reduction (clo-sure of many entertainment setting) and the demand reduction (many young people spend more leisure time in private setting to save money).