Italy is the EU member state that was hit the hardest economically by the covid pandemic, and this against the background that it had already been struggling with chronic weak growth and above-average public debt. This makes the European recovery plan Next Generation EU all the more strategically important for Italy on the way not only to overcoming the current crisis, but also to new growth perspectives. Gianfranco Viesti's paper analyses the challenges Italy is facing and how it intends to use the enormous resources of 209 billion euros for the digital and ecological transformation.