First Lady who supported workers’ rights and victims of domestic violence
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| Clio Maria Bittoni pictured with her husband, Giorgio Napolitano, in 2009 |
Bittoni was working for the League of Cooperatives, specialising in the application of the fair rent law in agriculture, in 1992, when Napolitano was elected as president of the Chamber of Deputies.
She had helped many farm workers to get better conditions but was quoted at the time as saying that it seemed ‘inappropriate’ for her to stay in her role since her adversaries had often been parliamentary committees, and other institutional bodies in Italy.
Her parents were Diva Campanella, a socialist activist, and Amleto Bittoni, who were both opponents of the Fascist regime ruling Italy, and they were officially living in exile at the time of her birth.
After attending classical high school in Jesi in Marche, Bittoni went to the University of Naples to study Law, where she met her future husband, who was a member of the Italian Communist Party.
After she graduated from university, Bittoni married Napolitano in a civil ceremony in Campidoglio in 1959. They went to live in Rome and had two sons, Giovanni, who was born in 1961, and Giulio, who was born in 1969.
Napolitano became the 11th President of the Italian Republic in 2006 and remained in office until 2015. In her official role as Companion of the President of Italy, Bittoni attended many events, both in Italy and abroad, by his side.
She also became involved in the defence of women’s rights, writing letters to newspapers about the cause, an interest she shared with the US First Lady, Michelle Obama, whom she hosted at the Palazzo Quirinale - the President's official residence - in Rome in 2009.
.jpg "Bittoni hosted her United States counterpart, First Lady Michelle Obama, at the Palazzo Quirinale") |
| Bittoni hosted her United States counterpart, First Lady Michelle Obama, at the Palazzo Quirinale |
She personally laid flowers at the Fountain of the Dioscuri in front of the Quirinale in March 2014 on a day dedicated to the victims of domestic violence, when the fountain was illuminated in red to reflect the bloody attacks suffered by victims, whose names were projected on the base of the obelisk.
After many years living in the Quirinale, Bittoni moved to live in an apartment in the Palazzo della Panetteria, the building next to the presidential palace, saying she felt freer of formalities and protocol by living there.
Bittoni was often seen out and about in Rome, mixing with ordinary people, without any bodyguards. In 2012 she queued with members of the public to visit an exhibition of pictures by Vermeer being held in the stables at the Quirinale and, after she was recognised, insisted on buying a ticket just like everyone else.
After Napolitano’s presidency came to an end in 2015, the couple moved back to their family home in Monti, another district of Rome, where neighbours often saw them walking around without any security escort.
Clio Maria Bittoni died in September 2024, two months before what would have been her 90th birthday. It was exactly a year after the death of her husband. Like him, she was buried in the non-Catholic cemetery in the Testaccio district of Rome.
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| The Lazzaretto building in the harbour at Ancona was once a quarantine station |
Chiaravalle, where Clio Maria Bittoni was born, is a comune - municipality - in the province of Ancona in the region of Marche, located about 15km (9 miles) to the west of Ancona, which is the capoluogo - the capital - of the Marche region. Ancona lies 280km (170 miles) northeast of Rome, and is one of the main ports on the Adriatic sea. Ancona’s history goes back centuries before the birth of Christ when it was inhabited by an Italic tribe. It was conquered by Greek settlers in 387BC, who developed it and set up industries there, and it was taken by Julius Caesar immediately after he crossed the Rubicon River in 49BC, sparking civil war. The 18m-high Arch of Trajan, built in honour of the emperor who built the city’s harbour, is regarded as one of the finest Roman monuments in the Marche region. Ancona’s harbour contains the Lazzaretto, a pentagonal building constructed on an artificial island in the 18th century as a quarantine station designed to protect the city from diseases carried by infected travellers.
Stay in Chiaravalle with Expedia
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| The tranquil surroundings of Rome's non-Catholic cemetery in Testaccio |
Clio Maria Bittoni and her husband, Giorgio Napolitano, are buried in the beautiful, tranquil, surroundings of the non-Catholic Cemetery, often referred to as the English cemetery, in the Testaccio district of Rome. The cemetery lies behind high walls flanked by cypress trees, close to Porta San Paolo and the Pyramid of Cestius, a burial monument that was built before the birth of Christ. The non-Catholic Cemetery was originally intended for foreigners who had died in Rome and it has become famous as the last resting place of the English romantic poet, John Keats, who died at the age of 25, soon after arriving in Rome, in 1821 . The remains of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley were also buried there after he was cremated on a Tuscan beach following his death at sea in 1822 at the age of 29. Due to the limited space available, burial is granted only in exceptional circumstances to illustrious Italians. In 2019, the remains of the writer Andrea Camilleri were interred there, and in 2023, burial was granted for Napolitano, a former communist who declared himself not to be an opponent of the Catholic Church but a non-believer. Bittoni was laid to rest there in 2024.
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More reading:
Giorgio Napolitano, the non-Catholic and Communist who rose to high office
How Laura Matarella took the place of her late mother as First Lady
The first Sicilian to be made President of the Republic of Italy
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1869: The birth of King Umberto I's assassin, Gaetano Bresci
1928: The birth of film music composer Ennio Morricone
1990: The birth of gymnast Vanessa Ferrari