She was paying in marks and the manager converted the price from euros It came to DM6 "It's gone up," the customer complained. It had, by 10 pfennigs in old money.At Rome's giant SMA supermarket, cashiers looked harried but queues were under control. "Only one client all morning has paid in the new money but I've had to give change in euros. Now please leave me, I have to add up my takings," said one woman ending her shift.

Small shops only give euros for euros, nervous that change will run out. "This period of double circulation is going to be a nightmare," said Serena, at a shoe shop by the Termini rail station.The markets were less serene. "If you want my prize fruit you have to pay me real money: lira. And that's what you'll get back," said Gianni, a stallholder in the Piazza Epiro..

Once, she might have been thrown into a pond and condemned if she floated. Or they might have searched her body for a "devil's mark." But in 21st century America, the way you try to stop a suspected witch is by charging her with insurance fraud. In 1996, the body of her lover was found in the boot of a car, with 9mm bullet wounds. In each case, the pattern was the same: an apparently strong case against Ms Gray suddenly evaporated when witnesses abruptly refused to co-operate, amid strange tales of incantations, potions and voodoo spells."Fear permeated this entire case," a former Maryland state attorney who tried to prosecute her for murder in 1991 without success, told The Washington Post yesterday."I do not practise voodoo and I do not practise witchcraft," Ms Gray declared when she was charged over her second husband's death. "Just because I go and buy a lucky charm to play the lottery and buy herbs, or take olive oil and anoint myself, that's in the Bible."What she also did, however, was take out insurance policies on the three deceased, from which she collected $165,000 (£115,000). Prosecutors now allege that it violated a Maryland law that specifically bans a person from receiving such benefits if they have caused the death of the insured.This time, prosecutors say they have enough evidence to show that Ms Gray was involved in the killings.