Esma Cakir, president of the Foreign Press Association in Italy, peers out of a secret entrance behind a bookcase in the Palazzo Grazioli. Photo: Chris Ward-Jones for the Telegraph
For a correspondent in Rome who is tired of trying to understand the inner workings of Italian politics, relief is now at hand — the prospect of a nice hot dip in a sunken bath.
< p>It just so happens that in Silvio Berlusconi enjoyed some of his most stunning «bunga-bunga» antics as he cavorted with young women younger than a third of his age.
The Foreign Press Corps moved into a grand palace in Rome on Monday for the last time belonged to the former Prime Minister, known as «Il Cavaliere» («The Knight»).
A member of the Foreign Press Association discovers a secret door behind a wooden bookcase in the Palazzo Grazioli. Photo: Nick Squires for the Telegraph
The bathtub was still running when one of the Foreign Press Association's roughly 300 international correspondents tried to use the taps.
Water is still flowing from the bathroom faucet. Photo: Chris Ward-Jones for Telegraph
The press's last home, a building around the corner from the famous Trevi Fountain, was sold and became a five-star hotel. .
After a painstaking search for a new location, the 16th-century Palazzo Grazioli was chosen.
For many years this was Berlusconi's home, both when he was prime minister and subsequently when he was forced to resign in 2011 due to the severe debt crisis.
Aside from the sunken bathtub, the most striking feature may be the secret door hidden behind a wooden bookcase in one of the rooms where journalists will now edit their copy.
A hidden handle allows the bookcase to creaks open, revealing a dark space. and an old wooden door.
The door opens onto a back staircase leading into the palazzo's courtyard—perhaps the ideal escape for a harried correspondent whose foreign editor is on the warpath after missing a deadline.
Another wide staircase overlooks the sight of a stuffed Javan rhinoceros head, shot in 1879 by an Italian duke, ancestor of the aristocratic Grazioli family, which still owns the building.
Stuffed head of a Javan rhinoceros Photo: Nick Squires for The Telegraph
The Foreign Press Association occupied the entire ground floor of the palazzo — known in Italian as the «piano nobile» — literally the noble floor where the bedrooms are located. and traditionally host reception rooms.
George Clooney once passed here, hoping to speak with the Prime Minister about relief efforts in Darfur. Berlusconi had other ideas.
“This evening became completely different than anyone could have imagined,” the Hollywood actor later recalled. «I said, 'I have to go,' and he said, 'No, where are you going?' There’s going to be a party,” and I’m like, “No, I have to go, I really have to go.”
Much of the original decor and fittings have been preserved. There are huge tapestries and oil paintings on the walls, as well as delicately engraved mirrors and chandeliers. Frescoes on the ceilings depict muscular classical heroes, thick-thighed cherubs and scantily clad nymphs.
The huge cost of renting real estate is paid by the Italian state.
This arrangement dates back to the fascist era; Mussolini sought to gather all the foreign journalists in one place so that he could keep an eye on them.
Foreign correspondents in Italy moved to the old Silvio Berlusconi's house in Rome
Rome correspondents are a privileged group. There are several other foreign correspondents' clubs around the world, in places like Hong Kong, Bangkok and Tokyo, but they rarely offer such luxurious facilities as those in Rome.
There was a buzz as journalists of all nationalities, from Canadians and Iranians to Britons, French, Germans and Turks, came to work on Monday and admired the luxurious decor.
“It's like the first day of school. You almost expect to see everyone putting away their pencils and pencil cases,” said a British colleague.
The toilets remain as they were when Berlusconi lived here, with bathtubs and copper taps. The water is still flowing from the taps, promising a long lunch break in the bath.
«Choked by kisses»
The Telegraph's designated workspace is in Berlusconi's former bedroom — unfortunately, it was a double bed, which he was reportedly given as a gift from Vladimir Putin to remove.
It was here that he invited him to spend the night a prostitute named Patricia D'Addario. She wrote an excruciatingly detailed account of the meeting in a book called Prime Minister, Enjoy.
Patrizia D'Addario spoke about her wild night with the Italian Prime Minister at the palazzo. Photo: EPS/Rex Features
“He told me he wanted contact with my skin, he held me tightly, he took my breath away… He smothered me with kisses,” Miss D'Addario wrote. “We kissed an endless number of times, and first of all he kissed my private parts.”
His endurance was such that “he could have entered the Guinness Book of Records.” According to her, he kept her awake all night. “There were times when I was afraid that I would not be able to withstand his attacks. Is he taking something? I've asked myself this question many times.» She speculated that his energy might have come from the «disgustingly sweet» herbal tea he was drinking.
The Prime Minister invited her back to the palace, and that time she was not the only woman in his sight. “Working as an escort, I thought I had seen it all, but 20 women for one man was a new experience.”
Journalists can now wander the long corridor where Berlusconi and Putin were photographed beaming during throws. a ball for one of the Italian Prime Minister's white poodles named Dudu.
At the height of the bunga-bunga scandals, when the Prime Minister was being entertained by young models and aspiring actresses, a couple of them in little black dresses photographed each other posing in front of a mirror, holding a hairdryer like a gun, and if they were girls Bond.
Inevitably, the photographs were leaked online and became one of the enduring images of the lascivious Berlusconi era. Correspondents joked that they found thongs and knickers in the bathroom cupboards.
Berlusconi, who was prime minister three times and a billionaire businessman, died last year.
There is a bar as the centerpiece which features an arrangement of Campari bottles — the drinks maker is one of the venue's sponsors, along with pasta company Barilla and chocolate company Ferrero.
Bottles of Campari line the bar. Photo: Nick Squires for the Telegraph «I think that, given our last place, we probably had the best overseas press club in the world,» said Philip Willan, a British journalist who lived in Italy for decades and writes from time to time for The Times.
“With this new place there can be no doubt.”
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