"As is customary in all Western democracy, and as I feel it is right to do, I called the leader of the People of Freedom, Silvio Berlusconi, to acknowledge his victory and wish him good luck in his job," Veltroni told reporters, bowing to the inevitable, even if final results were hours away.

Berlusconi has never admitted losing the 2006 election which he blamed on fraud and Veltroni's noble gesture seemed to be the latest effort to imitate his much-admired counterparts in the Anglo-Saxon world where 'fair play' is, in theory, considered a virtue.

"I can't deny that I think the 2006 elections were
irregular. The result we achieved today is proof of that,"
Berlusconi said.

Barack Obama, from whom Veltroni copied his "Yes we can" slogan "Si puo' fare", will be hoping he does not to have to make a phone call similar to Veltroni's any time soon.

Berlusconi says the new casual look he has adopted for this election was not dictated by a style advisor.

Instead the open-necked shirts are all about safety, he told Il Giornale daily.

"The enthusiasm of the crowd is overwhelming. They greet me like a rock star. You know why I decided to stop wearing a tie?

"Because one day I almost got hurt. The enthusiasm around me became so great that they accidentally grabbed me by the tie."

After being dragged along by overly-affectionate supporters, Berlusconi decided: "I need to dress differently when I'm in the piazza, I need to be comfortable, like when I'm at home."

The image conscious Berlusconi, who has admitted the odd nip-and-tuck and hair implants, makes his own style decisions, he says. "I obviously do not have an image consultant ... I decide what I wear."

Veltroni can sometimes be spotted on the campaign trail without a tie. He has yet to say whether that is for safety reasons or style.

The Italian election could be delayed because of a man called Giuseppe Pizza.

With less than two weeks until polling day, he succeeded in getting a court to overturn a decision to ban his Christian Democrat (DC) party from running. He had initially been banned from the election because the symbol of his tiny party - which appears on ballot papers - looked too similar to that of the larger Union of Christian Democrat (UDC) party.

The government hopes a higher court will overturn the appeal early next week. If it does not, the election could be delayed, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato has said. Both main contenders, Silvio Berlusconi and Walter Veltroni, want the vote to take place on schedule.

While the blip in proceedings has frustrated the main parties, it has injected a note of curiosity into what had been a strikingly dull campaign. And the fact the protagonist is named after Italy's most famous food proved irresistible to journalists.

"Pizza's Italy is a capricciosa (capricious one), poorly raised and badly baked -- it lands on your stomach and stays there blocking everything," said La Republicca, saying it was obligatory to play with the metaphor.

Il Messaggero punned on the word "bufala", which is Italian for the best buffalo mozzarella used on pizza but is also slang for a blunder. It compared the electorally puny DC to an anchovy, whereas the mighty Christian Democratic party which dominated post-war Italy unill the early 1990s was known as the White Whale.

The only shame was that the Margherita party no longer exists. The centre-left party - whose name was meant to refer to a daisy rather than a cheese and tomato pizza - merged with an ally shortly before the election to produce the Democratic Party headed by Veltroni.