In news from Italy:

Item-1:The lost tomb of Caligula has been found after an enterprising thief stumbled upon it and tried to smuggle a statute of the mad horse loving emperor abroad:

Officers from the archaeological squad ofItaly‘s tax police had a break last week after arresting a man near Lake Nemi, south of Rome, as he loaded part of a 2.5 metre statue into a lorry. The emperor had a villa there, as well as a floating temple and a floating palace; their hulks were recovered in Mussolini’s time but destroyed in the war.

The police said the statue was shod with a pair of the “caligae” military boots favoured by the emperor – real name Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; as a boy, Gaius accompanied his father on campaigns in Germany; the soldiers were amused he wore a miniature uniform, and gave him his nickname Caligula, or “little boot”.

The statue is estimated to be worth €1m. Its rare Greek marble, throne and god’s robes convinced the police it came from the emperor’s tomb. Under questioning, the tomb raider led them to the site, where excavations will start today.

Item-2: Speaking of sex crazed leaders and boots, even right wing Italian pols may be ready to give my old pal Silvio Berlusconi the boot after this:

Silvio Berlusconi‘s political career is once again in jeopardy after prosecutors today accused him of paying a “significant” number of women to have sex with him at parties he hosted last year.

Investigators also claim to have “ample investigative evidence” that Berlusconi provided flats for the women in return for sex at a Milan housing complex he built in the 1970s before entering politics.

He is already under investigation on suspicion ofpaying for sex with one of his guests, Karima el-Mahroug, a Moroccan belly dancer known asRuby Rubacuori, when she was 17 – an offence under Italian law. He is also suspected of pressuring police into freeing her from custody after she was arrested on suspicion of theft last May.

Berlusconi and an underage Moroccan belly dancer? The mind reels. I think Silvio may have finally jumped the shark. Hmm, the Fonz was Italian in a sort of bland teevee way. Is there a connection? Probably not…