And one of the most salient elements of the Sardinian society is how they treat older people.

Nor are Italians reassured to learn that Berlusconi fielded a number of candidates during the recent European Parliament elections whose only discernible qualification was that they were pretty young girls who had possibly spent some time in the prime minister s company at his Sardinian Villa or Roman Palazzo.

Such rumors may well turn out to be true, for the heart of the scandal now concerns the taped conversations between a paid escort and Berlusconi during their romps in his Sardinian villa on the big bed given to him by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. A downfall plotted to happen on a Kremlin supplied bed would be a denouement that not even one of Berlusconi s TV channels could dream up.