Near Milan, Villa San Martino, a dream and nightmare factory for Berlusconi's Italy

A car scrapes the driveway of Villa San Martino, then disappears behind the automatic gate. "La Dottoressa Marta has arrived," whispers a guard in the doorway of a gate. A plaque reads: "Deputy Marta Antonia Fascina. Political Secretariat." Born in 1990, the young elected official has represented the party of her late partner, Silvio Berlusconi, 54 years her senior, in the Chamber of Deputies since 2018. Marta Fascina, a former press officer at the businessman's football club, AC Milan, was never granted the right to marry him. Upon his death in 2023, however, she retained access to Villa San Martino in Arcore, a small town on the outskirts of the Lombard capital.

This house, which serves as both his residence and his political secretariat, must seem very empty to him: for half a century, it was the beating heart of a business and political frenzy from which Italy has not recovered. At the gate, Silvio Berlusconi's last nine dogs begin to howl. It seems they are still suffering from the absence of their master.

On June 12, the anniversary of his death, admirers parked an advertising truck outside the villa, covered with a photograph of the billionaire joining hands with George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin in 2002. It was accompanied by a message: "You left too soon... The world needed YOU..." Around the estate, other tokens remain: a stuffed heart, plastic flowers, and a portrait of a man clutching a wax-faced Silvio Berlusconi, all with the caption "Thank you, President, for what you did for all of us!" and the signature of Giulio Galbusera, his trusted butcher.

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