Journalists do not like to be news, but in this case the correspondents in Rome have necessarily ended up in all the Italian newspapers. The reason has weight. The Foreign Press Association in Rome, with 111 years of history, changes its headquarters and moves to the Grazioli palace in the Italian capital, in the central Piazza Venezia. It is not just another building in the heart of Rome, but for 25 years it was the Roman residence of Silvio Berlusconi, the home where governments were decided, nightly meetings of the cabinet of ministers were held and in recent years those scandalous “elegant dinners” that ended up in court. From January there will be no more Forza Italia meetings or bilateral meetings, but rather press conferences, contacts with representatives of all political stripes and the desks where many of the almost 300 reporters from media around the world who are part of this association – including La Vanguardia – prepare their information.
“For more than 20 years, this place hosted Silvio Berlusconi, who coordinated his politics from this headquarters. Now history is rewritten and it will be us, the correspondents who previously told their story, who will go there,” celebrates the president of the association, the Turkish journalist Esma Cakir. The president highlights the honor of explaining Italy under the magnificent frescoes and works of art of this 16th century palace, which will now be filled with microphones, newspapers and television cameras.
Discretely, however, other members wonder which bathroom was where Barbara Montereale, one of Berlusconi’s young guests, took some portraits that she later leaked to the press. Everything has happened at the Grazioli palace. There Vladimir Putin played with Dudù, Berlusconi’s beloved dog, in images that went around the world. The Russian president was so fond of this place that he gave the then Italian president the mythical “Putin bed.” According to a recording leaked by the Roman weekly L’Espresso, luxury prostitute Patrizia D’Addario had sexual relations with Berlusconi throughout the election night that brought Barack Obama to power in the US. “Do I shower too?” , and then you will wait for me in the big bed if you finish first?”, he asked her. “Which one, Putin’s bed?” she asked. “Yes, Putin’s.” “Oh, how pretty, the one with the curtains.” Berlusconi even showed it to George Clooney, a luxury guest who hoped to raise funds for Darfur refugees at the evening. Seeing that he wasn’t very interested, he ran away. He later told Time magazine that it was “one of the most surprising nights” of his life.
Until now, the correspondents in Rome worked in a building a stone’s throw from the Trevi Fountain, rented by the Italian Government, but this building will become another of the many hotels that are located in one of the most touristic areas of Rome, and it was time to find a new location. The rent for the new space in the Grazioli palace, also covered by the Italian Executive, is cheaper than the previous one.
The building had been empty long before the death of the former Italian prime minister in June. In December 2020, Berlusconi abandoned it, after two years practically without setting foot in it, to move to the sumptuous villa on Via Appia Antica that he bought for more than three million euros in 2001 from the film director Franco Zeffirelli, who was a senator of Forza Italia and continued to live there until his death. He was looking for a more comfortable house with green space, away from the center of Rome, after his bad experience with the coronavirus. In fact, one of the last political meetings held in the Grazioli palace was the one held in May 2018 with the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, and the now Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, his colleagues from the right-wing coalition, who He favored Forza Italia to give in and give the green light to Salvini to govern alongside the 5 Star Movement.
“It was the symbol of an era. There we spent the best years of our political adventure. The history books must talk about the Grazioli palace. That it is the headquarters of the correspondents is good news, so they will finally recognize the important role that Berlusconi played in foreign policy,” said Sestino Giacomoni, one of his historical collaborators.
