| “ | Nobody chose to go there... They chose you. It was surely the only school in the world where there were more teachers than students. There were no holidays, no sports days, no uniforms, no punishments, no visitors, no prizes and no exams. And yet it was, in its own way, a school. You could call it the Eton of murder | ” |
—Yassen Gregorovich's opinions of Malagosto |
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Malagosto is a private island less than half a mile off the coast of Italy, near Venice, where SCORPIA trains its agents and assassins.
About
John Rider was an instructor there during his deep-cover assignment with SCORPIA, and trained Yassen Gregorovich there.
Alex Rider spent time training there during the Scorpia novel. Julia Rothman had deceived the young spy into believing MI6 had killed his father John Rider, one of their highly skilled assassins, and persuaded Alex into developing his skills alongside the other students of Malagosto.
History
During the Middle Ages Malagosto had been a thriving island community. However, during the Genoese war, in 1380, it was ransacked and, and later victims of the plague were taken there for quarantine. When the plague died out it became an official quarantine centre.
In the eighteenth century it was used as a mental institution/sanctuary for the insane, but after a while it was finally abandoned and left to rot.
Scorpia bought the lease from the Italian government in the mid-1980s and use it as their Training and Assessment centre.
Staff
- Oliver d'Arc (Principal / Head teacher)
- Professor Yermalov (Practical lessons)
-  Miss Eijit "Jet" Binnag (Botany)
-  Mr Gordon Ross (Technical Specialist, History of weapons)
- Dr Karl Steiner (Psychiatrist)
- John Rider (Undercover)
- Mr Sefton Nye (Ex-principle)
Students and ex-students
Students training during the novel Scorpia
- Alex Rider
- Miss Craig
- Klaus
- Walker
- Amanda
Students training during the novel Russian Roulette
- Yassen Gregorovich
- Colette
- Marat
- Sam
Other students
- Nile