Rome — Wherever Italians turn, it seems, there's another depressing headline: The country's chronic economic woes. The possible tainting of Italian mozzarella. Mountains of trash on the streets of Naples.

Perhaps most depressing of all, many Italians don't see anyone to lead them out of the mess. Italians are in a funk as they are about to head to the polls April 13 and 14 to elect a new leader.

SHELLEY EMLING/For Cox Newspapers/STF (ENLARGE)

A beggar and his dog nap on a street in Rome. The stagnant economy is leaving Italians increasingly despairing about their future.

Pier Paolo Cito/AP (ENLARGE)

Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi attends a press conference in Rome, Thursday, March 27, 2008.

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"People are very disillusioned and many are not going to vote," said Diletta Pistono, an economist in Rome.

Polls show that Italy's right-wing leader Silvio Berlusconi, 71, who has twice been premier, enjoys a slight lead over former Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, 52.

The election was called after center-leftist Prime Minister Romano Prodi was brought down by a no-confidence vote in January.

Since then a placeholder regime has been biding its time until the new elections.

"Neither of the candidates is a great inspiration," said James Walston, the British head of the international relations department at the American University of Rome. "Neither side has any silver bullets."

A walk around Rome — which still attracts millions of tourists a year — reveals a crumbling city.

"We are falling apart," said Pistono, adding that many streets "are in a disastrous condition."

As recently as the early 1980s, Italy's gross domestic product was comparable to Britain's.

The Italian economy was stagnant in 2004 and 2005 and grew by just 1.8 percent last year, a poor showing when compared with many other European Union countries.

"The economy has been held back by inefficient state-run companies and familistic family firms that are in deep trouble after entering the euro and when facing foreign competition," said John Foot, an expert on modern Italian history at University College London.

Last December, Italians were dismayed to learn that the per-capita gross domestic product in Spain — a country many Italians consider a poor cousin — had not only risen above the EU average but had also surpassed their own.

A housing boom has made Spain one of the EU's greatest economic success stories in the past decade, while Italy has been fighting slower growth, stagnant salaries and rising prices on staples like pasta.

Public confidence in government eroded further after the book "La Casta" was published last year. Written by two journalists, the wildly popular book highlighted the fat pay and corruption of Italian politicians.

"I would say that Italians are feeling quite gloomy now," said Paola Fantini, an intern at the Acton Institute in Rome, a conservative think tank. "They are really feeling the poor economic situation.

"Lots of young students are leaving the country to go abroad," she said. "It has never been so bad for young people looking for a job."

A symbol of national pride and the shaky economy is Alitalia, the national airline.

The carrier is on the verge of bankruptcy and its future remains uncertain now that Air France-KLM has broken off takeover talks with unions.

Alitalia has said it will tell the government Tuesday whether it can survive.

Meanwhile, Italy's third-largest city, Naples, continues to deal with a trash crisis after its dumps filled to capacity late last year.

Also, the country's famed buffalo mozzarella industry was shaken last month by a dioxin scare. In order to ease concerns, the government has quarantined buffalo farms and recalled contaminated mozzarella. Yet sales of the cheese are down.

Analysts say the pileup of economic problems has led about 58 percent of Italians aged 18-29 to believe the social position of the young is likely to deteriorate.

Two years ago, only 43 percent of young Italians felt that way.

In a poll by Italy's La Repubblica newspaper, those older than 29 were even more pessimistic, with 63 percent saying their economic situation was getting worse, compared with 49 percent in 2006.

One reason voters are disenchanted, Walston said, is that the same leaders seem to be perpetually switching places.

Veltroni's own career in politics goes back 30 years.

Berlusconi soared to victory in 2001 with promises of transforming the economy — promises that never materialized during his five years in office.

Pistono said that no matter who wins, it will be difficult to bring about reforms thanks to a system hamstrung by shaky coalitions in the two houses of Parliament.

"The only way to leave Italian politics is with an undertaker," Walston said. "Politicians stay in and in and in. And that's part of the problem."