Silvio Berlusconi and his estranged wife Veronica Lario have at last reached a divorce settlement in which Ms Lario will receive 300,000 euros [£253, 881 or $381,215] a month – that should be enough to keep a girl in shoes – and the use of the couple’s beloved Villa Belvedere, near Milan, in which she already lives.
Ms Lario filed for divorce last year after several scandals broke regarding Mr Berlusconi’s presumed infidelity. The “last straw” for Ms Lario was her husband’s alleged involvement with showgirl Noemi Letizia and his attendance at her eighteenth birthday party. Ms Lario originally sought alimony of 3.5 million euros [£2,964,000 or $4.4 million per month ] a figure which Mr Berlusconi’s lawyers rejected as “exorbitant”.
Patrizia Pozzi, the landscape architect who restored the grounds of the Villa Belvedere for the couple in 1989, told Corriere della Sera yesterday that at that time she had “rarely seen a couple so in love” and that she is sad for Ms Lario, who will be surrounded, in the Villa, by objects which will remind her of her life with Mr Berlusconi. Never mind, Veronica. You can afford a few ornaments to cheer the place up now.
Do you have any advice for Veronica Lario?
Do you think she is a liberated woman?
