Italian doctors who recently ran a free hot line and website for macho men in crisis weren't expecting the avalanche of traffic -- 15,000 calls and a million web pages viewed in about a month.
Italian stallions evidently aren't so hot to trot as tourist legend would have it.
Young Latin lovers from Southern Italy -- where the climate and the men are thought to be hotter -- are especially "worried, fragile and anxious" when it comes to sexual performance.
Well, they must have had an inkling something was amiss between the sheets: the initiative set up by the national association of andrology (SIA) was titled "love without worries."
"Most callers were young people who tend to use Internet and the phone more," explained Bruno Giammusso, andrologist and scientific coordinator of the campaign. "The amount of traffic, however, must make us wonder why young Italian men are so preoccupied even in the absence of specific problems."
Most frequent nagging questions? Duration, performance and size. Some 42.3% of the inquiries were from Southern Italy and just 11.4% from Northern Italy.
Although Giammusso said the size issue is often unjustified (one wonders if there were tape measures involved in the fretful phone calls) he does note that callers exhibited a lack of adequate sex education and the wrong role models.
Who knew that Fabios ever felt less than fabulous? By other measuring sticks, Italian men certainly sound satisfied. Then again, all of those anonymous surveys aren't exactly scientific, in as far as how many people called up randomly are going to admit to sexual inadequacy? Certo che no!
If this crisis of confidence is really so widespread, it may be time to update the guidebooks.