Paolo Ascanio

In the short story The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman, Paolo Ascanio was an Italian who came to London to meet the blackmailer Count Foscatini. Foscatini (who was not a real count) had obtained some documents relating to an important person in Italy and had been using them to blackmail him. Ascanio paid Foscatini and retrieved the documents. According to Graves, Ascanio met the count a second time the following evening when they met for dinner. As the count was found dead that night, suspicion fell on Ascanio and he was arrested for murder. Given his mission, Ascanio was forced to deny all knowledge of Foscatini. However, the Italian ambassador himself provided an alibi for him for the night in question and the charges were dropped.

Portrayals
Ascanio is played by Vincent Riotta in the film adaptation of the original story in Series 5 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot. Here his name was changed to Mario Ascanio. His background and role was also altered. He was a masnadieri, a member of an ancient secret confederation of gangs. A wealthy Italian living in London, Bruno Vizzini, was the blackmail victim. He sent Ascanio to deal with Foscatini. Ascanio recovered the documents but then betrayed Vizzini and went into business for himself. He attempted to sell the documents to the Italian embassy but the embassy refused to deal with him, a masnadieri. Based on information provided by an embassy official Darida to Poirot, Japp was able to arrest Ascanio but by that time, Ascanio had already burnt the documents. Like in the original, there was no sign that Ascanio had the blackmail money. For that, Poirot had to look elsewhere.