No, Mr Bond, I expect you to bunga bunga DISCOVERED: ’
Berlusconi s secret underground complex at the villa where starlets cavorted half-naked and Tony Blair was once a guest
ARVED from the rock beneath a billionaire’s summer retreat, with a discreetly lit pool above a Poseidon mosaic and its own escape route to the open sea, it could grace any James Bond film.
But this secret lair is not home to a sinister villain bent on world domination, but to Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister notorious for parties with topless models and facing charges of paying an underage prostitute for sex.
The existence of the cave at his Villa Certosa estate on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda had been rumoured for years, but the first pictures emerged this week. They were obtained by the same Italian photographer who took long-lens shots of scantily clad showgirls around the media mogul’s other, outdoor pool there three years ago.
Stairs and a passageway illuminated by floor lights lead from the villa where Tony and Cherie Blair and Vladimir Putin have been among the guests.
In the cave itself, the pool floor is decorated with a mosaic of the Greek sea god holding a trident, and the water flows through a short tunnel to a gate which reportedly leads straight to the Mediterranean.
The underground complex is believed to have been built in 2004. “It was the secret services who asked me to carry out the
Cwork, after I had received 38 death threats,” Berlusconi explained at the time. He said he had sought advice on the design and construction from Pietro Lunardi, a cabinet colleague who was then the minister for infrastructure, and insisted that no planning regulations had been broken.
Antonello Zappadu, the photographer, who now lives in Colombia, said he had obtained the images from an anonymous source.
The semi-submerged cave is not the only flamboyant feature at the 60ha estate. Berlusconi once built an artificial volcano in the grounds to entertain guests at one of his parties.
A week ago, he injured his shoulder and wrist after taking a tumble at the villa, although his personal doctor said the damage was not serious.
Berlusconi, who turns 76 this month, stepped down last November when Italy became immersed in the eurozone crisis and with his reputation dented by a series of sex scandals, most notably involving allegations of “bunga bunga” parties at his mansion in Milan.
He is charged with paying Karima El Mahroug, an erotic dancer better known by her stage name of Ruby the Heart Stealer, for sex while she was below the legal age of prostitution and of then trying to cover up the alleged liaison.
She and Berlusconi both deny the charges. The trial is not expected to finish until later this year, and witnesses due to testify include actor George Clooney and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Berlusconi and his allies have dropped heavy hints that he plans to contest Italy’s next elections, which are likely in April.
A whiff of a new scandal was circulating last month, when a starlet named Sabina Began, known by the Italian media as the “Queen Bee” of Berlusconi’s inner circle of female admirers, alleged that she was pregnant by him. — © The Daily Telegraph, London