While many said the imminent exit of the increasingly unpopular tycoon who has dominated Italian political life for nearly two decades was a good thing, there was little faith that any possible successor would be any better.
"All those who have been mentioned as possible candidates for the job are those who will just look out for their own interests," said Daniela D'Antonio, a 24-year-old flyer distributor on her way to work in the centre.
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"They'll promise us the good life again, but the good life in Italy simply doesn't exist anymore," said D'Antonio, who survives on a temp job that pays 500 euros ($680) a month and cannot afford to go to university.
When he first came to power in the early 1990s, Berlusconi sold Italians on his vision of the American dream of the self-made man but the promises sounded increasingly hollow during a painful economic crisis.
His latest popularity ratings gave him an approval rate of just 22 percent.
"I'm really happy he's resigning," said shopkeeper Valentina Giusti, 33.
"I hate him to death, both politically and personally. But I'm not very hopeful the situation can be easily resolved, it's too complicated," she said.
Unemployed Valerio Mai, 58, said the resignation was "long overdue".
"Berlusconi was the real danger. The only way is up from here," he said.
Following a parliamentary revolt on Tuesday that deprived his centre-right coalition of a majority, Berlusconi has said he will step down after approval of a package of reforms expected by Sunday.
The announcement left Italy in limbo even though former European Union commissioner Mario Monti -- a sober economist starkly different from the colourful Berlusconi -- has emerged as the most likely successor.
Jeweller Monica Contoli, 38, said she was firmly pro-Berlusconi and believed his departure from the political scene would solve nothing: "No-one can be better than him, and whoever comes next won't be able to save Italy," she said.
The outgoing premier consistently played down the economic problems -- telling a G20 summit last week that restaurants in Italy were all fully booked and planes full -- and many hope Brussels will now step in to help out.
Comedian Roberto Benigni, a long-term critic of the premier, reacted to the news of Berlusconi's exit by using a ceremonial speech in the European Parliament to call on financial and political leaders to "invest in Italy".
"I've been eating tuna out of the tin in Italy because all the restaurants are full," he quipped, but insisted there was still hope that the Mediterranean state could pull itself away from the brink of the crisis.
"Italy is not the country of the Risorgimento, or of the Renaissance, it's the country of Resurrection," he said.
Some Italians fear that Berlusconi's departure is not guaranteed, despite assurances from Italy's president that the one-time cruise singer was definitely stepping down.
"Is he really going to go?" asked D'Antonio. "He has promised he won't run in the next elections, but he has made -- and broken -- many promises before."
Italian satirist Dario Fo also received the news with scepticism, accusing Berlusconi of lingering in power to create a vacuum in which fractious left-wing parties will clash over how best to handle the economic crisis.
"We're all agreed that Berlusconi is laying a trap. He hopes the left will be at each other's throats as they face up to a reform which is an economic and social butchers," he said.
But even if Berlusconi should resign immediately, Italians seem torn over who they would want in his place -- and others are downright indifferent, saying they consider the whole political class to be corrupt.
Former prime minister Bettino Craxi -- Berlusconi's friend and early supporter -- was pelted with coins and eggs by crowds of enraged Italians as he fled political scandal in the 1990s to live out his final days in exile.
His prodigy is currently a defendant in three trials -- for bribery, tax fraud, abuse of power and paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl -- yet there were no public shows of either anger or joy at his impending political demise.
Political commentators say his greatest fear is being led away in handcuffs.
And many are still in disbelief a prime minister who defended himself against multiple scandals and efforts to unseat him is really leaving.
"We just don't trust it to be true yet. We'll only start celebrating once we see actually Berlusconi and his cohorts pack up their suitcases and leave town," D'Antonio said.
