The Italian Senate on Monday turned down a demand for ice cream that raised the heat on Italy's pols - just as another ethics issue exploded with the resignation of a Senator who took an ambulance to an interview.
The Senate's quaestors - in charge of the day-to-day running of the building - said last week's request from two members for in-house gelato was "dangerous" given the current public mood.
Recent polls have shown public confidence in politicians is at a new low while a book describing the political class as an ever more privileged club soared to the top of the bestseller lists.
In a severe letter to ice-cream-deprived Senators Rocco Buttiglione and Albertina Soliani, the quaestors said their "banal" request could not have come at a worse time, amid perceptions that the parliament is a "happy oasis".
The officials scolded the pair for the way they framed their request - in particular the flippant claim that ice cream would "improve the Senate's quality of life".
They bluntly told Buttiglione and Soliani to sort their ice-cream problem out on their own, just like their colleagues do.
Hardly was the ice-cream flap laid to rest, however, than another embarrassing incident came to a head.
'AMBULANCE-JACKING' SENATOR QUITS.
Veteran Senator Gustavo Selva was forced to quit amid a wave of indignation following his own proud admission that he had fooled an ambulance driver into taking him to a TV interview, in order to dodge the gridlock that gripped Rome for President George W.Bush's weekend visit.
Selva, an 81-year-old former TV and print journalist, fell on his sword after an outcry from all sides of the political spectrum - and amid reports he had threatened to get one of the ambulance staff fired unless he got to his 'urgent heart appointment' as soon as possible.
Health Minister Livia Turco, a member of the former Communist Democratic Left party, called the Senator's 'journalist's trick' "disgraceful" while far-right MP Alessandra Mussolini, grand-daughter of the Fascist dictator, said he had provided "a pitiful spectacle" just when Italy was demanding "steely morality" from its political classes.
A Socialist MP said such incidents fed into the growing prejudice that politicians have become a "fully fledged caste".
Only a few of Selva's colleagues dared to defend the feisty former state TV correspondent.
Several MPs said his stunt showed politicians should retire earlier.
