When Prime Minister Mario Draghi's government spectacularly collapsed in July, sparking political upheaval and sending Italy into an early poll, one politician was set to benefit enormously.
Giorgia Meloni, the young leader of Italy's far-right party Brothers of Italy, went from political obscurity to becoming the candidate polls suggest will be the country's prime minister.
"We've had three different governments, three different majorities [since the March 2018 general elections]. Have any worked? No. History has proved us right," she told her supporters during a speech on the stage of Rome's Piazza Vittorio.
