X-SHOOTER: a unique opportunity for the Italian community .

X-Shooter is a high-efficiency, wide band (U to K), intermediate resolution (4,000-14,000), single-object spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). To optimize efficiency and increase wavelength coverage, light is split by dichroics into three arms: UVBlue, Visible, and Near Infrared. It will be the first second generation instrument of the VLT instrument suite. Currently in the last phase of integration, X-Shooter will see first light in the last quarter of 2008. This paper highlights first results obtained in our facilities.