‘He was a tremendous man’: will Berlusconi’s party still get the votes without him?

In Milano 2, the swish housing estate that launched a scandal-ridden career, residents are still grateful to the former PM. Whether they will vote for Forza Italia is a different matter

One of Silvio Berlusconi’s final wishes was to see the lago dei cigni, or swan lake, centrepiece of Milano 2, the peaceful, lusciously green residential development built by the entrepreneur on the outskirts of the northern Italian city, and a debut triumph that put him on the path to becoming a billionaire and ultimately conquering politics.

On his way to nearby San Raffaele hospital, where he died three days later at the age of 86, Berlusconi and his entourage, including his 33-year-old partner Marta Fascina, stopped at the Maximilian Bistrot, where he took a seat by a window with a view of the artificial lake and ordered an ice lolly.