Bandaged Berlusconi leaves hospital

LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has come out of the hospital, after being admitted for four days following an attack at a rally in Milan.

The leader had his nose bandaged and a compress on his left cheek, but he had words of conviction, as he thanked the doctors who treated him.

“I will have two memories from these days - the hatred of a few and the love of many, so many Italians,” Timesonline quoted him as saying.

He added: “Neither the violence of stones nor the worse violence of words will prevail.

“If, after what happened, there is a better awareness of the need for calmer and more honest language in Italian politics, this pain will not have been in vain.”

He headed to Villa San Martino, his estate at Arcore near Milan, where he is expected to stay for the next two to three weeks.

If he follows doctors’ advice he may not make any public appearances during his stay at the Villa, but his spokesman said he was “unpredictable”.

Meanwhile, he visited his dentist to begin reconstruction work on his teeth as well.

Also, reports have come that he will go to a clinic in the Swiss canton of Ticino for “cosmetic repairs” to his face, where he has done a plastic surgery in the past too.

Carlo Zoppi, the Mayor of the village, told the Swiss newspaper Le Matin: “The Italian Prime Minister should arrive here in the Ars Medica private clinic at Gravesano.”

Massimo Tartaglia, an electronics engineer with a history of mental illness, had hurled a souvenir replica of Milan Cathedral at Berlusconi during a rally. (ANI)