Grace Mugabe's sojourn in Rome must be intensely frustrating. President Mugabe's 44-year-old wife has been prevented, so far, from indulging in the lavish shopping sprees in one of the world's capitals that in Harare have earned her the nickname of Zimbabwe's “First Shopper”.

Doubly frustrating, since in recent years Mrs Mugabe, sometimes referred to as the “Heir to Imelda Marcos”, and her husband have not been very welcome outside Zimbabwe, and this rare foray was only made possible by Mr Mugabe's right to attend the FAO conference.

It was also frustrating for Rome's paparazzi, who have waited fruitlessly for days on end for her first shopping expedition. Hemmed in by dozens of journalists, camera crews and photographers camped outside her hotel, all too eager to record a buying spree, Mrs Mugabe has mostly kept to her luxury hotel in the Via Veneto, Rome,once the film set for Fellini's La Dolce Vita. With Rome's most appetising and expensive boutiques only a few minutes' walk away, she has decided to curb her penchant for buying luxury goods while her husband discusses world hunger at the FAO summit, and while her own country plunges deeper into economic chaos.

Via Condotti is the very heart of Roman luxury shopping, and home to Valentino, Gucci, Bulgari, Prada, Max Mara and Buccellati. Since Tuesday, the first day of the summit, there has been a constant coming and going of large, black Mercedes limousines carrying the ladies, and sometimes the gentlemen, of African delegations.

But so far no sign of Mrs Mugabe. The only photographs are of her entering and leaving the hotel, and a single shot of her being pulled hastily into a doorway as she walks along the pavement close to the hotel when her escort catches sight of another photographer.

Mrs Mugabe is known to have a particular passion for Ferragamo shoes. But the manager of the Ferragamo shop in Rome assured The Times that Mrs Mugabe had not made an appearance.

“Of course,” he said, “we serve a number of customers by correspondence, particularly when they are important national figures who have difficulty leaving their country.” But, with a courteous smile, he would neither confirm nor deny that Mrs Mugabe was among their number

A saleslady in another luxury showroom in Via Condotti pointed out that although Mrs Mugabe had not been seen in the street, “there is nothing to prevent her from having selections of whatever she wants delivered to her hotel for her to choose from”.

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