Monetary policy, in recent years, is often invoked as a panacea for a severe recession that is affecting Europe, in particular Italy from 2010. This paper will examine how monetary policy reacted in times of crisis before the currency reform implemented with EMS, the main step towards the single currency. In this paper we were used the sources of the Relations of the Bank of Italy to highlight the role played by this institution in the monetary policy and the use of this policy.