He might not even be married yet, but the Italian media was already speculating on Wednesday that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had booked into a Italian country hotel for a honeymoon with former model Carla Bruni.
While Sarkozy’s office remained silent on a report that the celebrity couple had wed privately last Thursday, Italian media said they were set to have a honeymoon in the village of Negrar near Verona, the setting of William Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet.
News websites said Sarkozy and the Italian singer Bruni had booked rooms at La Magioca, a small hotel in the Valpolicella wine producing area of northeastern Italy, and that they could arrive as soon as Tuesday evening.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said he was not aware of Sarkozy having wed and mocked reporters’ speculation.
Regional daily L’Est Republicain said Sarkozy and Bruni married at the Elysee presidential palace last Thursday, the same day Sarkozy hosted Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero there.
The potential honeymoon hotel is a converted country house whose website promises discretion. One Italian website said if they were not yet married they might choose to tie the knot in a church which is on the hotel’s private grounds.
