Aiuto! I can’t get la mia testa around “dovute”. Everything tells me it should be “sareste dovuto” but as it is “sareste” perhaps it has to conform. I am more used to “avresti dovuto” 
Grazie in anticipo.
As far as I can tell, all the past principles of verbs conjugated with “essere” need to conform by gender and number. There’s no way around it, I’m afraid
Update: Admittedly, one can argue that “dovere” isn’t conjugated with “essere”, but I suppose it’s “venire” that governs it.
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Thanks morbrorper for helping. Interesting indeed. The joys of grammar eh?!
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Here is another, similar sentence from Tatoeba, where you can see all the Italian permutations of number and gender. Interestingly enough, it shows that French conjugates “devoir” with “avoir”, not “être”, so the participle doesn’t have to be conjugated. Thanks @Floria7, for making me aware of that important difference.
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My friend in Milan explains, sareste dovute venire refers to “two or more women”. I am so used to using “avresti dovuto” but as always, there’s more than one way of saying things.
Ciao…
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