Italy and the rest of the European Union will go off daylight savings time this weekend.
Italians will set the clock back sixty minutes at 0300 Sunday, October 26.
Daylight savings time went into effect seven months ago and will return March 29, 2009.
It has been calculated that moving clocks an hour ahead these past seven months has saved some 99 million euros because 646.2 million Kw less of electricity was consumed.
Originally envisioned by American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin, the idea of gaining an extra hour of sunlight was first adopted in Italy and Europe in 1916.
It was suspended in 1920 for 20 years and returned in 1940 only to be abolished again in 1948.
The practice was definitively adopted in 1966 and for 13 years it ran from the end of May to the end of September.
From 1981 to 1995 daylight savings time lasted from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in September.
In 1996 it was decided to extend it to the last Sunday in October.
The United States uses a different schedule for daylight savings time which since 2007 is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
