Journalists don’t like to be news, but in this case, the correspondents in Rome have forcibly finished all the Italian newspapers. The reason has weight. The Association of the Foreign Press in Rome, with 111 years of history, is changing its headquarters and moving to the Palazzo Grazioli 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, the scandalous “elegant dinners ” that ended up in court. From January there will be no more Forza Italia meetings or bilateral meetings, but press conferences, contacts with representatives of all political colors and desks where many of the nearly 300 media reporters from around the world who are part of the association – La Vanguardia included – prepare the information.
“For more than 20 years, this place hosted Silvio Berlusconi, who coordinated his politics from this headquarters. Now history is being rewritten and it will be us, the correspondents who used to tell the story, who will go there”, celebrates the president of the association, the Turkish journalist Esma Cakir. The president highlights the honor of narrating Italy under the magnificent frescoes and works of art of the 16th century palace, which will now be filled with microphones, newspapers and television cameras.
Discreetly, however, other members wonder which will be the toilet where Barbara Montereale, one of Berlusconi’s young guests, took portraits that were later leaked to the press. Everything has happened at Palazzo Grazioli. Vladimir Putin played with Dudù, Berlusconi’s beloved dog, in images that went around the world. The Russian president was so fond of the place that he gave the then Italian president the legendary “Putin’s bed”. According to a recording leaked by the Roman weekly L’Espresso, the luxury prostitute Patrizia D’Addario had sex with Berlusconi throughout the election night that brought Barack Obama to power in the USA. “I take a shower too, and then will you 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 beautiful, the one with the curtains”. Berlusconi even showed it to George Clooney, a luxury guest who hoped to raise funds for Darfur refugees during the evening. When she saw that he was not very interested in the purpose, she ran away. Afterwards, Time magazine said it was “one of the most amazing nights” of his life.
Until now, the correspondents in Rome worked in a building on the edge of the Trevi Fountain rented by the Italian Government, but this will become another of the many hotels in one of the most touristic areas of Rome and it was time to find a new location. The rent of the new space in Palazzo Grazioli, also covered by the Italian Executive, is cheaper than the previous one.
The building had been empty since long before the death, in June, of the former Italian prime minister. In December 2020 Berlusconi left it, after two years of practically not going there, and moved into 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 Forza Italia senator, and continued to live there until his death. I was looking for a more comfortable house with green space, away from the center of Rome, after the bad experience with the coronavirus. In fact, one of the last political meetings at the Grazioli palace was held in May 2018 with the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, and the now Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, the coalition partners of right-wing, which favored Forza Italia giving in and giving the go-ahead to Salvini to govern together with Moviment 5 Estrelles.
“It was the symbol of an era. We spent the best years of our political adventure there. History books will have to talk about Palazzo Grazioli. That it is home to the correspondents is good news; in this way, they will finally recognize the important role that Berlusconi played in foreign policy”, said Sestino Giacomoni, one of the historical collaborators.