A lucid analysis of what Alfonso Sabella has done, or would have liked to do if he had the time, and what is the direction to take to get out of the quicksand of corruption.

"I knew that I would have to deal with whitewashed sepulchres and Pharisees, with court sycophants and flatterers as phony as Monopoly money, with criminals in suits and their fearful servants, with corrupt officials and unsuspecting executives or with corrupt executives and unsuspecting officials. I always believe, though, that it is worth trying to change this country."

So sounds the assessment of Alfonso Sabella, the judge who in December 2014, just days after the first series of arrests linked to the Mafia Capitale investigation, Ignazio Marino appointed councillor for Legality. In this travelogue, Sabella describes the city he encountered: on the one hand, the underworld that treats as equals and often controls politics and bureaucracy and, on the other, the difficulties of the administration's representatives who, even when they are not corrupt, lack the tools necessary to change. A book that, with its frank and passionate language, is at once a declaration of love for the capital and an account of the explosive mixture that has been fueling the malaffare for decades: from the coastal mafia to fraud on confiscated property, from hands on the environment to deals on public contracts.  And it seems that the fragility of politics is incapable of even understanding the scale of this vermin.