Clio Maria Bittoni – lawyer

First Lady who supported workers’ rights and victims of domestic violence

Clio Maria Bittoni pictured with her
husband, Giorgio Napolitano, in 2009

Clio Maria Bittoni, a specialist in labour law, who was married to a President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, was born on this day in 1934 in Chiaravalle in the province of Ancona in Marche.

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.

Bittoni hosted her United States counterpart, First
Lady Michelle Obama, at the Palazzo Quirinale

Bittoni had suffered a serious fracture two years previously when she was struck by a car while crossing Via del Quirinale near the palace.

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.

The Lazzaretto building in the harbour at 
Ancona was once a quarantine station

Travel tip:

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

The tranquil surroundings of Rome's 
non-Catholic cemetery in Testaccio

Travel tip:

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.

Testacccio hotels from Hotels.com

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

Also on this day:

1811: The birth of Charles Ferdinand, Prince of the Two Sicilies

1816: Lord Byron arrives in Venice

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

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Laura Mattarella - Italy’s First Lady

President’s daughter gave up career to fulfil state role

Laura Mattarella put her legal career
on hold to support her father

Laura Mattarella, who has occupied the position of First Lady of Italy since her father, Sergio, became President a decade ago, was born in Palermo on this day in 1967.

The role is normally occupied by the wife of the incumbent head of state but Sergio Mattarella was widowed in 2012, when Laura’s mother, Marisa Chiazzese, passed away.

In those circumstances, it is customary for the position to be filled by another nominated companion.  So far, among the 12 individuals who have been elected president since 1948, nine have been accompanied by their wives on official duties. Laura Mattarella is the third daughter to be First Lady, following Ernestina Saragat (1964-71) and Marianna Scalfaro (1992-99).

Laura Mattarella gave up what had been a successful career as a lawyer in order to support her father, a Christian Democrat politician who held ministerial positions under three different prime ministers, when he was elected president in February 2015.

Growing up in Palermo, she attended the University of Palermo to study law, graduating in 1991.

Three years later, she qualified as a barrister and moved to Rome, where she was a practising lawyer for two of the city’s major law firms, specialising in civil and administrative law, before being admitted to the Supreme Court of Cassation in 2010.

As the oldest of Mattarella’s three children and the sister to two boys, Laura was the natural choice to undertake the duties that would have fallen to her mother when her father took up residence in the Palazzo Quirinale.

The President and daughter with host 
Amadeus and guests at Sanremo 2023

She immediately suspended her professional activity and asked to be removed from the Bar.

Aged 48, she accompanied her father for the first time on an official public engagement on Republic Day - La Festa della Repubblica - on June 2, 2015, when it is customary for the president to host a reception in the Quirinale Gardens, which are opened to the public for the day.

She went to Vietnam with her father in November of the same year for the first of around 50 official foreign trips or state visits she had made so far.

This is in addition to numerous engagements closer to home.  On February 7, 2023, she and Sergio participated in the opening night of the Sanremo Festival 2023 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Italian Constitution. It was the first participation of a president and his official companion in the history of the event, which is almost as old as the Republic itself.

Laura Mattarella is married to Cosimo Comella, a cybersecurity expert who is head of information technology at the Italian Data Protection Authority in Rome. They have three children.

An historic church in the
Kalsa neighbourhood

Travel tip:

The University of Palermo’s faculty of law, where Laura Mattarella obtained the degree that set her up for the legal career that she subsequently put on hold, is in the historic Kalsa neighbourhood. The name is based on the Arabic Al-Khalesa, the name by which the area went after it was settled by Arabs in the ninth century. Al-Khalesa was the administrative hub of a city then called Balarm, which remained under Arab rule until it was conquered by the Normans in 1072.  Today, it is a lively district known for the Renaissance art in the 15th-century Palazzo Abatellis and the Byzantine mosaics of the 12th-century church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio. The area is well served with restaurants and street food outlets, as well as many shops selling ceramics and items in wood. Kalsa comes alive at night with plenty of bars catering for students and other young people. 

The Palazzo Quirinale has been home to popes,
monarchs and now the President of Italy

Travel tip:

The Palazzo Quirinale, which since 1946 has been the official residence of the President of Italy, was designed by Ottaviano Mascherino in the 16th century. It had previously been home to monarchs and popes.The Quirinale neighbourhood is located on one of Rome's seven hills. Just a short walk from the Palazzo Quirinale are the iconic Trevi Fountain, one of Rome's most famous landmarks, the ruins of the Baths of Constantine, the last great thermal complex built in imperial Rome, and the Piazza and Palazzo Barberini, built by Bernini and Maderno.  Also in the neighbourhood is Bernini’s church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, which is regarded as one of the most elegant examples of Baroque architecture in the city, and Borromini’s masterpiece, the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.

Also on this day:

1740: The birth typographer and printer Giambattista Bodoni

1907: The death of poet Giosuè Carducci

1918: The birth of designer Achille Castiglioni

1935: The birth of vocalist Edda Dell’Orso

1970: The birth of footballer Angelo Peruzzi

1979: The birth of motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi

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Sergio Mattarella – President of Italy

Anti-Mafia former Christian Democrat is Italy's 12th President

Sergio Mattarella, the 12th President of
the Italian Republic

The first Sicilian to become President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, was born on this day in 1941 in Palermo.

Mattarella went into politics after the assassination of his brother, Piersanti, by the Mafia in 1980. His brother had been killed while holding the position of President of the Regional Government of Sicily.

Their father, Bernardo Mattarella, was an anti-Fascist, who with other prominent Catholic politicians helped found the Christian Democrat (Democrazia Cristiana) party. They dominated the Italian political scene for almost 50 years, with Bernardo serving as a minister several times. Piersanti Mattarella was also a Christian Democrat politician.

Sergio Mattarella graduated in Law from the Sapienza University of Rome and  a few years later started teaching parliamentary procedure at the University of Palermo.

His parliamentary career began in 1983 when he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies in a left-leaning faction of the DC that had supported an agreement with the Italian Communist Party led by Enrico Berlinguer. The following year he was entrusted with cleansing the Sicilian faction of the party from Mafia control by DC Secretary Ciriaco De Mita.

Mattarella's brother, Piersanti, was
killed by the Mafia

In 1985 Mattarella helped a young lawyer, Leoluc Orlando, who had worked alongside his brother, Piersanti, to become Mayor of Palermo.

Mattarella was appointed Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and subsequently Minister of Education.

He stood down from his post, along with other ministers, in 1990 when parliament passed an act liberalising the media sector in Italy, which he saw as a favour to media magnate Silvio Berlusconi.

Mattarella  became director of the Christian Democrat newspaper, Il Popolo, and in 1994 when DC was dissolved following Tangentopoli, he helped form the Italian People’s party.

Mattarella was one of the first supporters of the economist, Romano Prodi, at the head of the centre left coalition known as The Olive Tree.

Two years later he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence in the Government of Massimo D’Alema, the leader of the Democrats of the Left.

Mattarella with his predecessor Giorgio Napoletano

In 2007 Mattarella was one of the founders of the Democratic Party, a merger of left-wing and centre parties

He was elected to be a Judge of the Constitutional Court in 2011 and served for nearly four years.

His wife, Marisa Chiazzese, the mother of his three children, died in 2012.

Mattarella was elected President of the Italian Republic in 2015, replacing Giorgio Napoletano who had served for nine years.

In December 2016 the Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi announced his resignation following the rejection of his proposals in the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum and Matterella appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, to be the new head of Government.

The Church of San Cataldo in Palermo with its
spherical red domes

Travel tip:

Palermo, where Mattarella was born and where he taught at the University, is the capital of Sicily, on the northern coast of the island, with a wealth of beautiful architecture, revealing both northern European and Arabian influences. The Church of San Cataldo in Piazza Bellini has a bell tower typical of those in northern France and three spherical, red domes on the roof of Arabic style.

The Courtyard at the Palazzo Quirinale in Rome

Travel tip:

President Sergio Mattarella lives in Palazzo Quirinale in Rome at one end of Piazza del Quirinale. This was the summer palace of the popes until 1870 when it became the palace of the Kings of the newly unified Italy. Following the abdication of the last King, it became the official residence of the President of the Republic in 1947.

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Oscar Luigi Scalfaro – President of Italy

Devout lawyer served the Republic all his life

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who was the ninth
President of the Italian Republic

The ninth President of the Italian Republic, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, was born on this day in 1918 in Novara.

After studying law and entering the magistrature he became a public prosecutor and is the last Italian attorney to have obtained a death sentence.

In 1945 he prosecuted the former Novara prefect Enrico Vezzalini and five servicemen, who were accused of collaborating with the Germans. All six were condemned to death and the sentence was carried out a few months later.

Subsequently Scalfaro obtained another death sentence, but the accused was pardoned before the execution could take place.

Scalfaro was brought up to be a devout Catholic and studied law at Milan’s Università Cattolica.

Before the war ended he lost his wife, Maria Inzitari, who died a few weeks after giving birth to their daughter. He never remarried.

In 1948, as a member of Democrazia Cristiana, Scalfaro became a deputy representing Turin and was to keep the seat for more than 40 years, during which he held a number of leadership positions within the Christian Democrat party and in the Chamber of Deputies.

The cloister at the Università Cattolica in Milan, the
largest private university in Europe

At various times Scalfaro was the minister in charge of transport, civil aviation, education and the interior and, in 1987, he tried unsuccessfully to form a Government himself.

He was elected President of the Republic in 1992 and served till 1999. He then became a Senator for life.

He campaigned for the ‘No’ side in the 2006 referendum on constitutional reform and also served briefly as President of the Senate, despite by then being in his late eighties.

Scalfaro died in Rome in 2012 at the age of 93.

The 121m cupola of the Basilica of San
Gaudenzio dominates the Novara skyline

Travel tip:

Novara, where Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was born, is in the Piedmont region to the west of Milan. In the historic centre you can still see part of the ancient Roman walls. The most imposing monument, which has become the symbol of Novara, is the Basilica of San Gaudenzio with its 121-metre high cupola designed by Alessandro Antonelli.

Travel tip:

The seat of the Italian Senate is Palazzo Madama in Rome, which was built on top of the ancient baths of Nero close to Piazza Navona at the end of the 15th century for the Medici family. The Palazzo takes its name from Madama Margherita of Austria, the illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Charles V, who married Alessandro dè Medici. In 1871 after the conquest of Rome by Victor Emmanuel’s troops, Palazzo Madama became the seat of the Senate of the newly-formed Kingdom of Italy.

More reading:

How Moro tragedy blighted career of President Cossiga

(Photo of Universita Cattolica by Scruch CC BY-SA 3.0)
(Photo of Novara cupola by Guido06 CC BY-SA 3.0)


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Carlo Azeglio Ciampi - prime minister and president

The politician who took Italy into the euro

The politician and banker, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, was born on this day in 1920 in Livorno.

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Photo: Presidency of the Italian Republic

He was the 49th Prime Minister of Italy between 1993 and 1994 and the tenth president, in office from 1999 to 2006.

Ciampi studied ancient Greek literature in Pisa, before being called up to do military duty, but in 1943 he refused to stay with the Fascists and took refuge in Abruzzo.

He managed to get to Bari, where he joined the Italian resistance movement.

After the war, he gained a doctorate in law from Pisa University and began working at the Banca d’Italia. He went on to become Governor of the bank and then President of the National Bureau de Change.

Ciampi was the first-non parliamentarian prime minister of Italy for more than 100 years, appointed by the President, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, to oversee a technical government.

Later, as the treasury minister under Romano Prodi and Massimo d’Alema, Ciampi, a staunch supporter of the EU, adopted the euro currency for Italy.

When he was elected president, he had a broad majority and was only the second president ever to be elected at the first ballot. He was held in high regard by all the political groups in parliament.

Rome's Palazzo Quirinale, official residence of
the Italian President

He was succeeded by Giorgio Napoletano and is currently a senator for life in the Italian senate.

Travel tip:

Livorno is a port on the western coast of Tuscany, which deals with thousands of cruise ship passengers. The city used to be known as Leghorn in English and there is an English cemetery in Via Giuseppe Verdi, with the graves of many former British residents, including the novelist. Tobias Smollett.

Travel tip:

Abruzzo is a region on the Adriatic coast, bordered by Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and Molise to the south. One third of its territory is made up of national parks and nature reserves that are home to protected species, such as the brown bear.

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