Italians are well known for their passionate nature, so a recent judgment by the country’s Supreme Court of Cassation has come as something of a surprise to family lawyers. According to Anthony Gold, a London firm that acts in international divorce proceedings, the Italian court has annulled a woman’s marriage because she ‘thought’ about having an affair, even though she was not actually unfaithful. She had apparently often talked about having an open marriage. The chairman of Italy’s association of family lawyers called the decision ‘shocking’, saying that it is ‘perplexing that the court should rule on what is a virtual betrayal when real betrayals frequently go unpunished.’ Indeed, some statistics suggest that adultery occurs in half of all Italian marriages. Anthony Gold family partner Margaret Hatwood says: ‘This is a very strange decision, especially as in a case reported in March 2008, the Court of Cassation said bending the truth was justified to conceal extra-marital relationships even in court proceedings.’ But she cautions: ‘If someone was constantly saying they wanted an open relationship and the other party objected, then that might be seen as unreasonable behaviour in the divorce courts in the UK.’ In other words, don’t even think about it.