Friday is the last day of campaigning in view of Sicily's regional elections on Sunday.
The Sicily vote is seen as a test ahead of a general election expected in March.
On the left, the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) is bidding to see if its efforts to forge alliances will prove effective despite its failure to lure the MDP splinter group back into the fold.
Despite a new election law that encourages coalitions, polls say the general election will probably produce an inconclusive result.
Ex-premier and PD leader Matteo Renzi has said the PD is aiming to reach a 40% threshold along with other small leftist groups and avert the need for an alliance with the MDP.
The biggest single adversary for the PD is the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) which is currently ahead of the PD in the polls and is looking to a strong showing in Sicily.
The M5S maintains that the new Rosatellum election law is designed to stop it winning.
A war of words between Renzi and M5S leader Luigi Di Maio has hotted up in the last few days of the Sicily campaign and Di Maio challenged Renzi to debate him on prime-time TV.
Renzi on Thursday might said "I have accepted the (TV debate) challenge of the 5-Star Movement's premier candidate. See you Tuesday evening, friends". Di Maio earlier challenged the ex-premier, saying Renzi "has a deal to divvy up Sicily and Italy" with centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi. The two sides are now discussing which channel should host the debate, State broadcaster RAI or La7, the only non-Berlusconi commercial channel.
On Friday Renzi said that the elections in Sicily "are important above all for the future of this marvelous and difficult island". He said "we have invested a lot in this land and those who rule it over the next five years will be able to manage them for the best." He said that if he was Sicilian he would vote the centre left's candidate Fabrizio Micari, in an "alliance that goes beyond the PD".
On the centre-right, the Sicily elections are also being seen as a test for next year.
Forza Italia (FI) leader and ex-premier Berlusconi said that a pact for a centre-right alliance for next year's general election has been reached after dining with Northern League (LN) leader Matteo Salvini and Brothers of Italy (FdI) head Giorgia Meloni in Catania on Thursday. "We were already in agreement," Berlusconi said.
"The pact had already been sealed... the foundations have been laid for the path to win the elections".
The dinner lasted over two hours and ended with a long three-way chat on the veranda of a restaurant in the Sicilian city, where the leaders are campaigning for Governor candidate Nello Musumeci in Sunday's regional election. Meloni, however, played down talk of an agreement already being reached for a national alliance. "It's early to say that we have wrapped up an agreement on the programme of government," Meloni said. "We want to construct a serious, concrete programme and you don't finish that with a dinner at 11 o'clock in the evening.
"We didn't talk about the premiership, about names, but about the objectives to set".
Renzi said Friday "the centre right should decide who their front runner is." "Then, I'm quite ready to debate the candidate, anywhere, anytime".
FI is currently polling neck-and-neck with LN and Salvini is vying to be centre-right premier candidate with Berlusconi, who is currently stilled banned from office because of tax fraud but hoping the European Court of Human Rights will lift the ban.
Among other things, LN is trialling in Sicily its recent decision to drop "Northern" from its name and just become the League, reflecting its new national appeal after ditching northern secessionism some years ago.
Polls currently show that the centre right, which is expected to be the winner in next year's general election but fall short of a majority, will come out on top in Sicily. FI Sicilian chief Gianfranco Micciché has gone so far as to say they are expecting to win all 61 of Sicily's first-past-the-post constituencies as they did in 2001.
Sicily not the only place voting on Sunday.
The Rome seaside district of Ostia is also holding elections to vote in a new municipal council this weekend.
The previous council there was dissolved for mafia infiltration.
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