During the commercial break Silvio Berlusconi turned towards where I was sitting in the TV audience, grinned mischievously and said: “I have a little story for you.”
The former prime minister has been everywhere during Italy’s election campaign but is hard to pin down. He has been a permanent presence on TV and radio chat shows, but has been rarely seen in the flesh, avoiding rallies and his beloved bagni di folla, literally “crowd baths”. So I had to join the small studio audience in Rome to see him close up, and immediately understood why he is staying as far away as possible from natural light.
At 81, his facial skin looks waxed, powdered and pulled in all directions, while his eyes seem to