I was always amused by the massive number of Lira that were needed to go about everyday life, back in the pre-Euro days. You could easily carry around 100,000 Lira as just pocket money.
How did it get so inflated? Did it start out that way, or was it just a gradual change? Was it related to post-WW2 recovery?
Here’s an abstract of an economic paper that might help, assuming you could read the whole thing.
It pretty well indicates that the downfall of the Lire occurred pre-war, under the fascists. Of course, the world-wide depression of the 1930’s wasn’t a picnic for any country.
I can contribute a coin-knowledge thing. By 1958, Italy was issuing a 500 Lire silver coin which was about the equivalent of the silver US half dollar. That would indicate about 1000 lire/US$1 which was, IIRC, the general level from the 1950’s thru the 1980’s, give or take a little. It soared to 2000 lire/US$ in the late 90’s, much as other world currencies depreciated against the US$.