The most sought-after woman in Milan these days is a 15-year-old 15th-century courtesan in a painting by Leonardo da Vinci going on view at the Brera Museum.
The painting, called The Lady with the Ermine, seems to exert the same sort of mysterious powers of attraction attributed to another famous Leonardo lady, the Mona Lisa.
More than 10,000 Milanese have already booked a ticket to see the canvas when it goes on display for a month starting on November 18th.
Cecilia's portrait is usually displayed in the Czartoryski Museum in Cracow, Poland, and was brought to Italy as part of a cultural exchange programme.
The Prince of Wales was a schoolboy smoker, he admitted yesterday.
Now a vehement anti-smoker, the prince revealed: "I gave up smoking at the age of 11. I had one or two strong ones behind the chicken run at school."
The prince was at Cheam School in Berkshire when he experimented with cigarettes.
Rock star Meat Loaf admitted to cheering fans yesterday that he is a "true Scotsman", because he owns a kilt and wears nothing underneath.
The Bat Out of Hell star brought mayhem to the opening of a new record store in Edinburgh by clowning around and shouting to the audience Braveheart-style: "I'm Scottish at heart."