Tens of thousands of teachers, students and trades unionists marched through the centre of Rome on Saturday to protest at planned education reforms by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government.
The country's three biggest trades unions said almost 100,000 people braved wintry hail showers to take part in the protest against Education Minister Letizia Moratti's planned reform.
Guglielmo Epifani, leader of Italy's largest union, the CGIL, criticised a lack of investment in education and said Moratti had "to talk to the unions to change what she intends to do".
Antonio Foccillo, a leading member of the UIL union, said a teachers strike was inevitable if the minister pressed ahead with the controversial reforms, introducted by Berlusconi's government last year.