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(From The Moscow Times)
President Vladimir Putin's wife, Lyudmila, went shopping, ate dinner with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and admired actor George Clooney's villa during a visit to Italy to promote a cultural exchange program between Russian and Italian children.
Lyudmila Putin rarely takes solo trips abroad, and the visit, which was continuing Tuesday, offered an insight into the usually private life of Russia's first lady.
At Berlusconi's invitation, she arrived on Friday in Milan as part of the Pinocchio-Orlyonok program, in which 50 Italian children spent five days in Moscow last week while 50 Russian children visited Milan.
The program brought together the winners of art competitions in Russia and Italy and offered an opportunity for them to develop contacts, exchange artistic experiences and study the Russian and Italian cultures, RIA-Novosti reported.
The Russian and Italian schoolchildren put on a performance of "The Incredible Journey of Pinocchio" for Putin and Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, at Milan's Piccolo Theater on Monday evening.
The performance capped a trip that included sightseeing, shopping and a trip to Como, a popular tourist destination near Milan that is most in the news these days for famous resident George Clooney, who owns a villa on Lake Como.