From Pope John Paul II to Sophia Loren, everyone is getting in on the euro act. While the Pope's face is due to appear on some Vatican-mint euros, the ever-elegant Loren features in an engaging, government-sponsored TV advert for the euro. Breaking into hypnotic Neopolitan slang, "La Loren" urges Italians to let the old currency "do its last good deed" by donating unwanted lira to cancer research via containers now found in banks and post-offices.

Persuading Italians to abandon the lira and adopt the euro could probably have been achieved easily enough, even without the not inconsiderable charms of Ms Loren or the not inconsiderable moral authority of John Paul II. In truth, and for all too obvious reasons, Italian attachment to the national currency bears no comparison with that of, above all, Germans to the deutschmark.

Over the years since the first lira was minted in Venice in 1472, the currency has been prone to frustrating instability and fluctuation. The era of the helter-skelter ride finally ended only when, after a difficult last-gasp rush, Italy brought its economy in line with the convergency parameters required to make the start-up of the euro in 1998.

In that context, and in a very tangible way via interest rates, the euro has already been a source of good news for the Italian consumer. By the early 1990s, those unfortunate enough to need a mortgage to buy a house were paying 12 to 14 per cent interest on their loans. In the post-euro era, they now pay 4 to 6 per cent.

Not surprisingly, the current nationwide euro campaign does not devote much attention to lamenting the passing of the lira. Rather attention is focused on eliminating any sense of panic by emphasising that life after the euro will be very much the same as life before the euro.

Thus, we have a series of radio and TV ads in which the protagonist does exactly the same thing - buying his cappuccino and cornetto or throwing a coin into Roma's celebrated Trevi Fountain - in both currencies. The message is simple enough. Where the cappuccino and cornetto used to cost 2,700 lira, they will now cost €1.4. The implication is that if your barman made a poor cappuccino in lira, it is unlikely to be any better when you pay for it in euro.

Italians, too, are helped by the mathematics of their conversion rate, namely 1936.27 lira to the euro. At first glance, this might look like a difficult calculation to make yet that rate lends itself to (a shorthand) division or multiplication by the simple factor of two.

Let us explain. The Italian motorist accustomed to paying 100,000 lira for a fill-up of petrol will now find he/she pays approximately €50 for the same fill-up. Leaving aside all the noughts (and for the flexible Italian mind, this is not a problem) you arrive at the new currency by halving the old, 100 divided by two becomes 50. If you still think this is complicated, then just spare a thought for the French whose currency weighs in at 6.559 francs to the euro.

For those, and there will inevitably be many of them especially among older generations, for whom the new currency is nonetheless a source of anxiety, all is not lost. Enterprising Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, never a man to miss a promotional opportunity, has promised a free euro-converter for every Italian household.

Younger and more technologically minded Italians, too lazy to do the necessary mental arithmetic, can resort to their favourite generational icon, namely the mobile phone.

Telecommunications company Wind offers its clients the possibility of doing the euro to lira conversion by text message. Send the price in euros and they will send you back the value in lira.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that not everyone in these parts is rushing headlong into the brave new euro zone. Recent reports from the Holy See suggest that the Vatican will not start distributing the new currency until "late January at the earliest".

As an autonomous, independent state, the 108.7 acre Holy See is empowered to mint its own coins, and thus its own new euros, which the Vatican has adopted as its official currency. Some of those new coins will bear an image of Pope John Paul II's face but they are unlikely to be seen before February since the Holy See will take advantage of the fact that the lira, like all other euro-zone currencies, remains legal tender until February 28th.