ROME – Colorful as ever, Silvio Berlusconi lived up to the Italian stereotype yesterday by taking his mother rather than his wife to vote in the country’s election.

Voting in Milan, Mr. Berlusconi was ticked off at the polling station box for trying to tell the formidable 95-year-old to cast her ballot for her son.

“I cannot even tell my own mother?” he asked the intervening official. After voting himself, the prime minister told cheering supporters that he was “absolutely calm” and had nothing to say to opponents.

Asked how he would spend the afternoon, he said, “I will go to a restaurant with my mother, like an engaged couple, because it will make her happy.”

The billionaire tycoon has often paid tribute to his mother, Rosella Bossi. In his 2001 autobiography “An Italian Story,” sent out to millions of voters before the election, he wrote that she told him to “have the courage” to follow his “ideal” of leading his country.

His wife, the enigmatic Veronica Lario, was nowhere to be seen. A spokesman declined to reveal her whereabouts and said Ms. Lario was “an intelligent woman who is not concerned with appearances.”

Ms. Lario, whom Mr. Berlusconi first spotted in a play described as a “topless classic,” has rarely towed her husband’s line.

After the prime minister sent Italian troops to Iraq she said she was “not in favor of the war.” She has also described her husband as “the most charming liar I have ever met.”

Meanwhile Romano Prodi, who is favorite to win the election, cast his vote in his hometown of Bologna. His wife, Flavia Franzoni, was with him. “I slept well very well last night,” he said.

Mr. Prodi’s center-Left Olive Tree coalition has said it will boost the Italian economy by reducing labor costs and taking more care with public finances. Mr. Berlusconi’s center-Right coalition, which includes the former fascist National Alliance, has showered voters with generous promises, including abolishing council tax and rubbish tax on first homes.

No campaigning was permitted on Saturday, the day before voting began. Mr. Prodi went jogging, while Mr. Berlusconi went to his seaside villa in Sardinia before flying to his house near Milan to be with his family. While he was relaxing, however, his party, Forza Italia, was accused once again of breaking electoral rules, this time by sending out thousands of mobile phone text messages.

Some messages, said Mr. Prodi’s coalition, offered free telephone calls in exchange for voting for Mr. Berlusconi. Others contained jokes about Mr. Prodi, the “idiot.”

The Green Party, which is allied to Mr. Prodi, lodged a formal complaint and set up a free phone line for people to report abuses. “Mr. Berlusconi has broken the rules so many times, he is now capable of anything,” Mr. Prodi said. “This has been a very hard, wicked, and interminable campaign, just as the other side had planned.”

More than a million Italians living abroad have already voted. In Italy itself 47 million people are eligible to vote.

Polling continues today until 3 p.m. and a result is expected in the evening.

At stake are 630 seats in the House of Deputies, with another 315 seats in the Senate of the Republic.