The word around the Roman Forum is that Italy is on the verge of a Renaissance. After three years of recession, modest growth is expected this year.

Regular readers may recall Giovanni and Guiseppe, two Italian plumbers who tried their luck in England about three years back. Thanks to improved employment prospects, they have returned to their beloved homeland and have found work in the movie industry. Their photogenic faces not quite photogenic enough for the cameras, they have had to settle for being responsible for the fitting and maintenance of the portable toilets on the set of ‘Spectre’, the new James Bond movie. They handle their S-bends every bit as well as any stunt driver on the open road, while their high-speed drill leaves occupants shaken, not stirred.

Strolling in the evenings  down the Corso Vittorio Emmanuele II, Giovanni and Guiseppe notice that the potholes have been filled so that Daniel Craig doesn’t hit his bonce speeding his Aston Martin (sadly, not the original) along its length. They have to wait for a seat at a restaurant next to the Ponte Sisto, while revellers gabble to each other in accentless English about their day on the film-set. As they take their seats, there is sudden confusion as a gaggle of long-forgotten paparazzi appear in the entrance, furiously snapping the gorgeous Monica Belucci – Bond’s latest Girl – as she glides to her table. The pick-up in the international film industry has had a knock-on effect across the economy.

Why this revival of Hollywood on the Tiber? Answer: Incentives. Now, incentives are an international tax purist’s nemesis. They distort the allocation and location of labour and capital, and – if they could be brought to life – should be shot. Just occasionally though, they are justified. The incentives given by the Italian Government to Film Production in 2009 and grudgingly renewed in 2013, are a good example. Italy is a natural location for location filming – it possesses exquisite beauty and preserved history.

The 1950s and 60s were Italy’s heyday as a Hollywood host while nurturing the amazing homegrown output of the likes of Fellini. By the 1990s, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic had gracelessly stolen Italy’s thunder through cheap alternatives. Italy’s legislation – providing tax credits to locally registered production companies that could be used against, in addition to corporate tax, deductions against wages – has not created a distortion; it has relieved one. And the world of cinema is a better place for it. Watch out for the remake of Ben Hur.

Orson Welles was at the Hotel Excelsior in Venice some time after World War II trying to convince a White Russian to finance his next movie (I believe it was the Italian produced ‘Black Magic’). As he walked into the dining room with his prey, he spotted Winston Churchill – whom he had met briefly during the war and who had attended a performance of Othello – at a corner table. Noticing Welles, Churchill gave a polite nod of recognition. This sent the White Russian crazy – and he proceeded to offer Welles everything he wanted. The next day Welles spied Churchill paddling in the hotel pool. Wading over to the Greatest Englishman, he told him what had happened and thanked him profusely. That evening, when Welles and the Russian entered the dining room, Churchill stood up and bowed low. Britain’s past and future prime minister was clearly an international  patron of the arts – and a decent comic actor, to boot. More’s the pity he had to play opposite Hitler and Mussolini, rather than Marlene Dietrich and Sophia Loren.