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Spaniard ‘bids €400m for Berlusconi mansion’

A Spanish entrepreneur has offered former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi around €400 million for his Sardinian villa, home to lavish parties and a fake volcano, local media has reported.

Published: 19 August 2013 13:27 CEST
Spaniard 'bids €400m for Berlusconi mansion'
Silvio Berlusconi invited Russia's Vladimir Putin to his Sardinia Villa Certosa mansion in 2003 and 2008. Photo:AFP

“A very important family in Madrid is negotiating the purchase and just needs to fix the price. I think in the end it will be €380 or €400 million,” a person close to the deal told ABC Spain, Corriere della Sera reported.

However, Berlusconi’s office swiftly rejected the report, saying there were “no negotiations happening”.

“The rumour about the property sale…is devoid of any foundation,” the former prime minister’s staff said in a statement.

Villa Certosa is one of Berlusconi’s numerous lavish homes scattered across Italy and around the world.

The 80-acre property features two lakes, a spa and an amphitheatre, Corriere said.

But despite such surroundings, in 2006 Berlusconi felt something was missing and had a fake volcano built in the grounds.

The simulated eruptions led neighbours to call the fire brigade, who were sent away while the party continued.

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ACCIDENT

German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident

Thirteen people, including German tourists, have been killed after a cable car disconnected and fell near the summit of the Mottarone mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

Published: 23 May 2021 14:15 CEST
Updated: 23 May 2021 16:46 CEST
German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident
The local emergency services published this photograph of the wreckage. Photo: Vigili del Fuoco

The accident was announced by Italy’s national fire and rescue service, Vigili del Fuoco, at 13.50 on Sunday, with the agency saying over Twitter that a helicopter from the nearby town of Varese was on the scene. 

Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps confirmed that there were 13 victims and two seriously injured people.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that German tourists were among the 13 victims.

According to their report, there were 15 passengers inside the car — which can hold 35 people — at the time a cable snapped, sending it tumbling into the forest below. Two seriously injured children, aged nine and five, were airlifted to hospital in Turin. 

The cable car takes tourists and locals from Stresa, a resort town on Lake Maggiore up to a panoramic peak on the Mottarone mountain, reaching some 1,500m above sea level. 

According to the newspaper, the car had been on its way from the lake to the mountain when the accident happened, with rescue operations complicated by the remote forest location where the car landed. 

The cable car had reopened on April 24th after the end of the second lockdown, and had undergone extensive renovations and refurbishments in 2016, which involved the cable undergoing magnetic particle inspection (MPI) to search for any defects. 

Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Twitter that he expressed his “condolences to the families of the victims, with special thoughts for the seriously injured children and their families”.

Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini told Italy’s Tg1 a commission of inquiry would be established, according to Corriere della Sera: “Our thoughts go out to those involved. The Ministry has initiated procedures to set up a commission and initiate checks on the controls carried out on the infrastructure.”

“Tomorrow morning I will be in Stresa on Lake Maggiore to meet the prefect and other authorities to decide what to do,” he said.

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