“Don’t worry, now I live in the attic,” says Ilona Staller, 71, to reassure fans after the news that her house is up for auction. Ground floor, 136 square meters, garden, round pool for private use, veranda. Starting price: 231 thousand euros. There is a clarification in the margins: “Both the veranda and the pool will have to be demolished, as they do not meet the standards.” But the apartment on Via Cassia 1818, not far from La Storta, is part of porn history: many films were filmed there; there, in the same area, lived, in addition to Ilona, Moana, Riccardo Schicchi, Eva Henger, Milli D’Abbraccio. Also here was the headquarters of Diva Futura, the agency of Schicchi and Ilona. And today, not only the apartment of 136 square meters is up for auction, but also sex in the bathroom in the living room, dogs locked in the bathroom during hardcore scenes because they are jealous of Cicciolina and are ready to intervene in her defense. Up for auction are the whims of Ramba jealous of Cicciolina, soft toys handed out by fans, Moana sunbathing by the pool – and this is the last image. The entire sentimental and professional life of Cicciolina (the one who called listeners “cicciolini” on Radio Luna – hence the name) is up for auction.
Her husband Salvatore
Born in Budapest in 1951 as Elena Anna, Ilona grew up with her mother, a midwife, and her stepfather, an official in the Ministry of the Interior. At the age of 13, she works as a model, at 16 – as a waitress at the Danube Continental Hotel – during this period, Ilona claims that she was a spy for the Hungarian special services (however, there is no evidence for this). In 1970, she marries Salvatore, a wealthy Calabrian who once in Italy reveals himself for who he really is (“we ate pasta every day because we couldn’t afford meat,” says Ilona to Elvira Serra 7 ). In 73, in order to save him, there was a meeting with Schicchi, a student of the Faculty of Architecture and a photographer. Those years (narrated in the autobiography Per forza e per amore, Mondadori): model engagements, Booboo from Yorkshire, Riccardo, nature lover. “We walked for a long time in the forest, walked along the rivers in big boots, fished, sunbathed naked,” writes Ilona. Schicchi photographs Ilona, immersed in nature, in poppy fields. Zombie prisoner in Etruscan tombs. Photos that Ilona claimed on her deathbed: “I went to meet him at the hospital with my friend Ursula Davis, she is Hula Hop. I asked him if he could return my photographic materials to me and he yelled after me: “You will die first!”. To which I replied: “Sorry, Riccardo. This time you’re wrong” – it was 2012, the time of the big conflict between her and Skikchi, and also the year of Skikchi’s death (Ilona was right).
With Richard
Instead, she goes back to the 70s/80s, to happy memories: Riccardo and Ilona on the streets of Rome, she takes off her panties to throw them at passers-by. She is on the overpass of the Moscow Ring Road with her legs spread, with cars and trucks that are nailed. She is in Rinacente, enchanted in front of a wreath, actually a necklace. “With a transparent veil and a wreath of flowers on my long hair, hugging my teddy bear, I showed not only my body, but also my soul.” And again among the memories: her saving Skikki passed out in a thermal spring – their mania to look for unknown places. The one that takes him to the hospital – despite the advice of his mother, who hypothesizes a drop in sugar: “Give him cream caramel.” That a drop in sugar, a diabetic coma, doctors say. So, Schicchi discovers that he has diabetes, which in 2012 will lead to his death.
Then Moana Pozzi: “She was my best friend,” Ilona said several times – in 2022, Eva Henger refuted her: “Recently, they have not been very friendly.” Lies: “We worked together a lot, had a lot of sex and talked about our things,” says Ilona Serre. “When she died, her mother asked me to choose a piece of clothing, she wanted to give it to me: I took a pair of boots, although I wear 37 and she is 42.” Boots that still exist, despite some claims that Ilona resold them along with other Moana items during the economic hardship.
love party
Together with Moana Ilona, she founded the Party of Love after a political activism that began in 1979 with the Party of the Sun and continued in the Radical Party, with which she was elected to parliament. July 2, 1987 Cicciolina moves to Montecitorio. Dressed punishingly, as she defines a green dress with a tricolor frill, worn that day. If she wanted to, Cicciolina knew how to play by the rules – this is what she is trying to prove. However, the reception of deputies is hostile. On the very first day, Ilona Staller finds herself in the hall of Montecitorio, not knowing where to sit, in front of everyone who would have left her there if not for a woman: the venerable Adele Faccio, a radical who goes to her and symbolically, in fact, he takes her hand, squeezes her hand tightly to bring her to her seat. On the same day, an adoring crowd awaits her outside Montecitorio along with her friends: Moana, Baby Pozzi and Ramba topless. Then Cicciolina feels less alone (although feminists also protested in Piazza Montecitorio that day). Five years in parliament were difficult for Staller (“Raise your skirt”, “Won’t we show your ass?” – the phrases of the ladies on the benches). Only one: Giulio Andreotti, who sent her a Merry Christmas card in 1983..
Legislative proposals
Amid ridicule and requests for resignation, Ilona Staller puts forward her own bills: sex education in schools, the creation of love parks, the right to sexuality for prisoners. Not to mention the animal welfare campaign he has been running since 1979. Ilona’s love for animals, in life and on stage. In his show there are white doves, Giorgio the chameleon, Pito-Pito the python. Lies and slander that in the show she mated with a python (as some have said). “In the show, I want to convey that love should be given to every creature, even the most disgusting,” he told the press. Unfortunately, one night during the show, when he is taking Pito-Pito out of his bag, a man comes on stage and grabs the python in protest and throws it into the void. “A few hours later my poor Pito-Pito died.” About those years, Cicciolina says: “Many journalists and intellectuals fell in love with me.” But she loves Jeff Koons, an American artist who portrays her in various works and whom she marries in ’91. Not knowing the tradition of throwing a bouquet, Ilona takes the flowers home to put them in a box, where they are still: wilted, wilted.
Natasha
Let this be a harbinger of what’s to come: Ilona is losing the little girl she wanted to name Natasha. Then, of course, Ludwig arrives – it’s 1992, but Ilona and Jeff argue, flip flops fly. Until 1993, when Koons tricked his son into America. Thus began Ilona’s battle to get the child back, which ends with an FBI warrant for his arrest: the kidnapping of a minor. Next comes the legal case – lawsuits, psychiatric reports. In 2006, the final verdict is passed that the child is handed over to the mother. That son, whom today, at the age of thirty-one, Ilona condemns: “He asked me for money, threatening with a stun gun.” Ludwig’s defense: “Shazer was a gift from a friend, I didn’t know it was illegal.” This is, in the ultimate synthesis, the life of Ilona Staller, part of which takes place in an apartment on Via Cassia 1818. In the garden, on the terrace, around the pool that needs to be demolished. The pool where the last meeting with Moana takes place. He lost a lot of hair, Ilona recalls. His legs were so thin that they looked like arms. He withered like a flower.” The next day I left for Lyon, I was afraid – always Ilona – did not believe in reincarnation.