This Europe: Namesakes endure lifelong identity crisis

Giovanni Talluto was born in Palermo on 3 September 1954. So was Giovanni Talluto. These two different men, with perfectly matching personal details, have been dogged by a lifetime of muddles.

One is a barman. The other is a watchmaker. The government, it seems, cannot tell them apart.

The confusion over the barman's identity turned into a nightmare when he was on the point of getting married, only to be told by the register office that he already had a wife. "That upset my fiancée more than a little," he told the Sicilian daily, the Giornale di Sicilia. "Fortunately, we managed to clear things up pretty quickly."

The barman also faced a clash with tax authorities when he was issued with a tax bill demanding more than he earned in an entire year.

And only a fortnight ago, he was issued with a speeding ticket. But he does not own a car and travels only by bus.

The two Giovannis lived in ignorance of the other's existence until, at 18, they were called up for national service.

"The officer called out my name and date of birth and I stood up and said, 'I am Giovanni Talluto'," the barman said. "Then he stood up and said, 'No, I am Giovanni Talluto'." Spartacus comparisons were inevitable.

But in 1994, the barman said, the authorities managed to make a slip that would have more than compensated for all of the confusion.

The barman, who had been issued with the same national insurance number as the watchmaker, received notification at 40 that he could retire. A computer had added together the two men's tax contributions.

"It would have been too good to retire at that age. At least for once the damned anomaly would have been useful for something," he sighed.