Briton dies and ‘wife’ is injured after hotel sex game goes wrong
A BRITISH man died and a woman was seriously injured in an upmarket Italian hotel after a suspected erotic game went tragically wrong.
The unnamed 40-year-old man, who is thought to have suffered a seizure, was found dead yesterday beside a 43-year-old woman, believed to be his wife, who had cuts and bruises.
The couple were last night reported to be from Manchester. Local reports claimed they ran an estate agency.
Paramedics rushed to the £350-a-night Hotel Continentale, close to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in central Florence, early yesterday, after the woman raised the alarm. She was described as being in a ‘serious but stable’ condition in the city’s Careggi hospital.
The British tourists had arrived at the hotel, which is described as ‘playfully chic’ and popular with honeymooners, on Friday evening.
An Italian police source said: ‘The people involved are both British and at the moment we are working on two theories: an erotic game that went wrong, or some sort of domestic argument. But the general direction is that of an erotic game.
‘The man was found with a series of cuts, bruises and other injuries on his body and so was the woman, although she was more seriously hurt and the man appears to have had some sort of seizure.
‘There is blood in the room and the forensic teams are working there at the moment, while the woman has been taken to hospital for treatment. Her current condition is serious but she is stable and her injuries are not life-threatening. We hope to question her at some point in the next few hours.’
Television news footage showed police cars and an ambulance parked outside the hotel as forensic teams walked in and out of the foyer, while tourists looked on from the Ponte Vecchio just yards away.
Florence magistrate Ester Nocera has opened an investigation into the incident.
A source at the hotel described how the drama unfolded, saying: ‘The woman had raised the alarm after a chambermaid knocked on the door but some of the guests had already called reception to report shouting and banging coming from the room.’ Hotel Continentale is located in the heart of Florence, the tourist-magnet capital of Italy’s Tuscany region, which is hugely popular with British holidaymakers.