Muammar Gaddafi saves a struggling Italian village

Colonel Gaddafi has reportedly "adopted" the tiny town of Antrodoco after discovering it by chance last year when he travelled to Italy for the G8 summit in the earthquake-hit city of L'Aquila. Nervous of driving through tunnels possibly weakened by the powerful quake on the motorway which connects Rome with L'Aquila, he instead instructed his entourage to take a winding back route through the mountains. He stopped for a break in Antrodoco and was reportedly bowled over by the locals' hospitality and warmth.

After posing for group photographs and hugging villagers, he was quoted by La Repubblica as telling them: "You have entered my heart and I won't forget you." The Libyan leader subsequently sent several envoys to the village, including his ambassador to Rome, Hafed Gaddur.

The mayor of the town of 2,800 people, Maurizio Faina, told them that it suffered from high unemployment and complained of a lack of tourism in the area, despite the potential offered by the surrounding mountains and forests. Antrodoco is known for little other than its proximity to a strange legacy of Benito Mussolini's rule – pine trees have been planted on a nearby mountainside which spell out the word 'Dux', Latin for leader or 'Il Duce'.

The unusual formation, which can be seen from miles around, dates back to just before the Second World War.

"They listened to me very intently and assured me that they would pass everything back to the Colonel, who seemed to have been enchanted by Antrodoco," he said.

"I'm starting to dream of a future of development for our little town."

Col. Gaddafi has reportedly promised to help the village by converting a historic palazzo into a luxury hotel and setting up a business bottling mineral water from a mountain spring. He is also interested in funding a new sports complex and soccer training centre – one of his sons, Al-Saadi Gaddafi, used to play for Perugia in the adjacent region of Umbria. A delegation from the town was due to fly from Rome to Tripoli on Sunday for a week-long trip to discuss the plans.

Despite Italy's colonial occupation of Libya, the two countries have forged close ties recently and the rapport between Col Gaddafi and the Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is warm. Italy has agreed to pay $5 billion (£3.4 billion) in reparations for its colonial occupation of the North African country and the two nations are cooperating on stopping illegal immigrants reaching Italy by boat.


/Telegraph.co.uk/