"After stunning Italian politicians with his successful plunge into politics this year, the comedian Beppe Grillo has gone one step further and launched his electoral campaign in Sicily by swimming to the island.
The 64-year-old dived into the strait of Messina on Wednesday and braved a chilly breeze and sporadic rain to make the one and three-quarter mile (2.8km) crossing from Calabria in just over an hour, after joking that the stretch of water "had looked a bit narrower on Google".
After training all summer, Grillo kept up a steady crawl across the strait, with a flourish of butterfly stroke at the end for the cameras, emerging from the water to greet 300 cheering supporters.
Detractors were quick to compare the flamboyant comic to the likes of Vladmir Putin and Benito Mussolini, who have sought popularity through physical feats, not to mention Mao Zedong, who swam the Yangzhe river in 1956."
via guardian.co.uk / more
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