'Life Is Beautiful' comic and filmmaker Roberto Benigni has come top of a poll which asked Italians to name their Person of the Year.
Benigni, who is currently wowing TV audiences with a show combining wicked satire with fervent Dante readings, got almost 11% of the votes from 1,000 respondents around the country polled by the Ekma agency.
Second spot went to maverick comedian Beppe Grillo, leader of an extra-parliamentary campaign to reform Italian politics.
Grillo, whose 'F*** off' rallies to eject MPs with criminal records drew angry crowds this autumn, earned 8.7%.
The other prime mover of this year's wave of anti-political sentiment, journalist and writer Gian Antonio Stella, was only second-last in the poll.
Stella's book The Caste, about perks, privileges and pork-barrel policies, was Italy's bestselling book this year - but Italian bestsellers sell in the thousands rather than millions.
The evergreen appeal of opposition leader and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi was confirmed by his fourth slot, three ahead of possible general-election opponent Walter Veltroni.
Apart from TV personalities, singers, soccer stars and a lone cyclist, the only other newsmaker in the poll was controversial Milan magistrate Clementina Forleo, who got into hot water for alleging political attempts to sway a bank takeover probe. Here is the poll:
1) Roberto Benigni, comic (10.9%)
2) Beppe Grillo, comic (8.7%)
3) Antonio Ricci and his hit TV comedy show Striscia La
Notizia (7.7%)
4) Silvio Berlusconi, politician, media magnate (7.4%)
5) Adriano Celentano, singer (7.1%)
6) Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, FIAT, Ferrari and business
association leader (6.6%)
7) Walter Veltroni, politician (6.3%)
8) Paolo Bonolis, TV presenter (5.8%)
9) Simona Ventura, TV presenter (5.3%)
10) Fiorello, entertainer (4.8%)
11) Gianluigi Buffon, footballer (3.4%)
12) Dario Fo, Nobel-winning writer (3.1%)
13) Gerry Scotti, TV quizmaster (2.9%)
14) Francesco Totti, footballer (2.6%)
15) Gennaro Gattuso, footballer (2.3%)
16) Vasco Rossi, singer (2.2%)
17) Clementina Forleo, magistrate (1.9%)
18) Mike Buongiorno, doyen of Italy's quizmasters (1.6%)
19) Gian Antonio Stella, journalist (1.1%)
20) Paolo Bettini, cyclist (1.0%)
21) others (7.3%).
