Cost
of the Costa
Leader
Friday July 30, 2004 The Guardian
Tony Blair's holiday habits have once again dropped him, as his host might say, nella merda. His decision to take his family for a day or two's visit to Silvio Berlusconi's SMERSH-style holiday home next month will simultaneously affront his party and irritate his fellow European leaders, few of whom have a kind word for the Italian prime minister.
The villa Certosa, which occupies a hundred acres of the millionaires-only Costa Smeralda on the northern coast of Sardinia, undoubtedly offers extraordinary titillation for the jaded palate of the weary traveller. Accounts vary, but it has several swimming pools, a wild-boar reserve, 2,000 cacti personally selected by the owner, a newly constructed open-air theatre and, enthrallingly, a secret lift in a tunnel cut through the cliff down to a landing stage. Perfect for MI6 operatives and others who prefer to travel by submarine, this was only recently completed to a chorus of protest from locals, who said it did not have planning permission, an omission countered by Mr Berlusconi on the grounds of security.
Like Mr Blair, Berlusconi suffered an anti-war backlash at last month's European elections and could not resist bragging about the supposedly secret visit at a press conference on Wednesday. He has already made capital from the visits of other world leaders, including the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, allegedly entertained with a selection of Italian love songs played by the villa's resident guitarist.
Mr Blair used to holiday regularly in Italy, several times as the guest of Prince Girolamo Guicciardini Strozzi and, once, of the Tuscan government; he and his family have also been the guests of the Egyptian government at Sharm el-Shaikh, and they are currently staying in Sir Cliff Richard's villa in Barbados. Few would begrudge him his two or three foreign holidays a year and the precious time with his family, away from the pressures of the job and media interest, that they offer. But he could not have chosen a more provocative destination, nor a political friendship more calculated to make his diminishing band of party activists review their loyalty.
L'articolo tradotto in Italiano.
by www.osservatoriosullalegalita.org
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