ROME – The United States still does not have an ambassador to Italy, fuelling speculation that Nancy Pelosi might get the job, though most diplomatic observers expect that banker Stephen Robert is in line to be Washington’s next man on the Tiber with his glamorous wife Pilar Crespi Echevarria set to take over the Villa Taverna, diplomatic sources say.

 Robert, former president and CEO of Oppenheimer & Co, has generously financed Ms Pelosi’s electoral campaigns and she was believed to have put forward Robert’s candidature to the Biden administration.

This summer, Ms Pelosi, 82, came to Rome, stayed at Villa Taverna, held up traffic all over Via Veneto after she visited the Embassy and then went to the Excelsior for lunch. She then participated in the annual Fourth of July event together with the U.S. ambassadors to the UN food agencies and to the Holy See.

 Ms Pelosi subsequently went to stay at Andrea Bocelli’s club in Tuscany.