  A summary is given of the main outcomes of the quantum-critical-point
scenario for high-$T_c$ superconductors, developed in the last few years by the
Rome group. Phase separation, which commonly occurs in strongly correlated
electronic systems, turns into a stripe instability when Coulomb interaction is
taken into account. The stripe phase continuously connects the high doping
regime, dominated by charge degrees of freedom to the low doping regime where
spin degrees of freedom are most relevant. Dynamical stripe fluctuations
enslave antiferromagnetic fluctuations at high doping. Critical fluctuations
near the stripe instability mediate a singular interaction between
quasiparticles, which is responsible for the non-Fermi liquid behavior in the
metallic phase and for the Cooper pairing with d-wave symmetry in the
superconducting phase.
