When you buy a litre of gas (benzina) when you are travelling around Italy what are you paying for?

Perhaps the cost of the product, IVA (sales tax) and other taxes?

In Italy there is a special tax added to the cost of gas called achise and truly it reflects the history of Italy and perhaps how politics has degenerated over the last decade or so.

The price of gas (believe it or not) includes:

 1.90 lire to finance the war in Ethiopia (1935)
 14 lire for the Suez crisis (1956)
 10 lire for the disaster of Vajont (dam collapse in 1963)
 10 lire for the flood in Florence (1966)
 10 lire for the earthquake in Belice (near Agrigento in Sicily, 1968)
 99 lire for the earthquake in Friuli (1976)
 75 lire for the earthquake in Irpinia (1980)
 205 lire to finance the war in Lebanon (1983)
 22 lire to finance the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996)
 0.020 Euro to cover the renewal of the contract of road and rail transporters (2004)
 0.0073 Euro to cover the maintenace and conservation of works of art etc (2011)
 0.040 Euro to cover the immigration emergency due to the Lybian crisis (2011)

And now it includes (from November 1 to December 31) 0.89 Euro to finance the floods in Liguria and Tuscany.

So now you know why gas costs so much in Italy!