(ANSA) - Two drunken youths entered the grounds of Premier Silvio Berlusconi's luxurious Sardinian villa this summer and took a dip in his swimming pool, a Sardinian daily reported on Wednesday.
The L'Unione Sarda article said the two young men wandered into the 52-acre park surrounding the premier's home after a night out on the town. They entered the grounds without having to scale a wall or a fence and didn't even realise that they were at the back of Berlusconi's Villa Certosa, the daily said.
Unable to fall asleep, the two took a swim in the premier's thalassotherapy seawater pool set amongst the rocks behind the villa.
After they emerged from the waters, the two were arrested by police who reported them to local magistrates, the daily reported. But it added that no action was taken against them because no charges were filed by the premier or his family.
Berlusconi, Italy's richest man, has several villas on Sardinia, a sumptuous Renaissance palazzo in Rome, an extensive villa outside Milan and a castle in Tuscany. But Villa Certosa on Sardinia's famed Emerald Coast is the jewel in the billionaire media magnate's real estate crown, a 27-room villa with special features such as underground pools, a private jetty and a huge garden of cacti.
The premier is believed to have built a replica Greek amphitheatre to enhance its attractions for the world leaders he often entertains there. Villa Certosa became the focus of controversy recently when prosecutors, armed with local zoning laws, were refused entry to check building work on the grounds.
They were told that all the premier's residences are protected by national security laws. Opposition MPs expressed outrage after it emerged that the homes of Berlusconi and those of his children and close aides are all protected by state secrecy norms.
Environmentalists and lawmakers with the Green party accuse Berlusconi of having ignored building regulations at Villa Certosa.
