JUST as Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, was basking in the praise of his fellow leaders over his handling of the G8 summit last week, a new episode in the scandal that has haunted him for months was disclosed.

A magazine reported that he had spent a weekend in a luxurious Umbrian health spa with a retinue of women, including an actress and a former showgirl who have worked for the billionaire politician’s television stations.

On the first day of the summit in the city of L’Aquila, which was hit by an earthquake in April, Berlusconi, 72, made a direct reference to his troubles, assuring fellow leaders: “You all know very well they are attacking me on a personal level, but rest assured, I will continue to lead my country for another four years.”

Prosecutors in Bari in southern Italy are investigating a businessman, Giampaolo Tarantini, on suspicion that he abetted prostitution by allegedly paying women to attend parties at Berlusconi’s homes in the capital and Sardinia. Tarantini has denied all wrongdoing.

The magazine L’Espresso reported on Friday that Berlusconi, with Tarantini and “many” young women, spent the weekend of November 28-30 last year at the Health Centre Marc Mességué near the picturesque hilltop town of Todi in Umbria, to undergo massage therapy to relieve back pain.

Set in an ancient mansion, the spa is the brainchild of the Paris-born Mességué, who invented what he termed the “one-day light” diet – just one day of dieting each week. The spa combines alternative medicine and beauty care treatments and boasts a large lounge with a grand piano.

Berlusconi’s entourage included Tarantini, who arrived by car with a number of young women, after getting lost in the countryside. Among the female guests were allegedly Barbara Guerra, a former television showgirl, and Licia Nunez, an actress and friend of Tarantini.

Guerra denied the magazine’s report and said: “None of it is true. I know nothing about this weekend. I was working at the time.” She added that she did not know the people mentioned in the article, including Nunez and Berlusconi. Nunez was quoted in the magazine as saying she knew nothing about the weekend.

Last week Berlusconi could draw some comfort from the support of an alleged escort who was paid generous expenses to attend another party at his luxurious Rome residence, who described him as “very charismatic” and “a great entertainer”. Maria Teresa De Nicolò, an interior decorator from Bari, said Tarantini had paid for her travel, hotel and other costs to attend the dinner in September.

In an interview in the office of her lawyer Sabino Stram-belli, De Nicolò, 37, firmly denied Italian reports that she was a prostitute, had helped recruit women as guests for the parties, or had slept at Berlusconi’s home after the party.

“I didn’t sleep there, and I didn’t have sex there. What’s true is that the party ended very late, at about 4am,” she said.

“I’m not Patrizia D’Addario,” she said, referring to the Bari prostitute who claimed to have spent the night of the American election at Berlusconi’s home after Tarantini brought her to a dinner there last November.

D’Addario has given investigators audio and video recordings which, she claimed, were made that night. Berlusconi has branded her account “trash and lies”.

De Nicolò was questioned as a witness by investigators in May. Only once she had arrived in Rome, she said, had Tarantini, “an acquaintance rather than a friend”, told her the party he had invited her to was at Berlusconi’s home. “I thought he was joking,” she recalled.

She had brought with her a black, low-cut Prada dress and, after Tarantini gave her £860 expenses, she spent most of it on shoes and other items, including her return flight home. Tarantini paid for the outward flight and her hotel.

When she arrived at Palazzo Grazioli, Berlusconi’s home, she saw the party consisted of about 15 beautiful women aged “about 25 upwards” and included showgirls from Berlusconi’s television channels. She refused to identify them. There were only five male guests.

Berlusconi chatted briefly to her, asking where she came from and what she did for a living, and she found him “very charismatic, very attentive”. Over dinner, she said, he talked “all the time”.

“Silvio’s a great entertainer. He talks for five minutes about politics, then he tells jokes – sometimes a bit dirty – then he talks about his grandchil-dren. You’re never bored,” she said. During the evening, he told more than a dozen dirty jokes and sang as many songs.

“We danced a slow dance and he held me very properly. He’s a good dancer and I had fun,” she said. She took home with her two tiny plastic figures – a gladiator and a Swiss Guard – that were part of the table decorations.

De Nicolò said she could not reveal whether investigators had asked her if she had slept at Berlusconi’s home because of judicial secrecy, but said she had decided to speak out to clear her name. “I’m tired of the dirt that’s been thrown at me. My parents are retired and have been hurt by it. Basta [enough] slander against me, and against Silvio, too,” she said. A spokesman for Berlusconi declined to comment yesterday on the health spa report or on De Nicolò’s statement.

The controversy over Berlusconi’s private life has also focused on 5,000 pictures taken by the photographer Antonello Zappadu of Berlusconi and women guests at his Villa Certosa in Sardinia in 2007-8.

Renato Ruggiero, the lawyer for Angela Sozio, 36, a former Big Brother contestant in Italy who is featured in several such photographs, said last week she had not been questioned by prosecutors in Bari and had nothing to do with the investigation.

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