After a stumbling start, the country has gone from being a global pariah to a model however imperfect of viral containment that holds lessons for its neighbors and for the United States.
When Rome turned 2773 years old on April 21st this year, it was not with the usual magnificent parades throughout the city that the occasion was marked, but a low-key commemoration broadcast online and on television.
The so-called Arab Spring of 2011 have too often been analyzed by commentators and journalists as unexpected outbursts of violence or as the result of power games between western states.