Pablo,
Is that right? You pay 57% tax in Italy? That is the highest rate of tax in the World.
It is difficult to say exactly Mike, but the social security is around 25% if you are able to claim successfully you are self employed, if not it goes up to 30%. And when social security is paid and if you have more than 75.000€ left the rate is 43% (i dont know if it is progressive or not though) of the remainder. Italy is expensive but not as expensive as for example Denmark Norway and the rest of Scandiland where the rates are even higher.