Honeymoon in the Salotto del Mondo
Thirteen years have passed since the lion of the small Principality stopped roaring. The strong heart of the longest-lived sovereign of Europe, after a long and exhausting agony, stopped beating on the morning of April 6, 2005 at the age of 81. From the previous month he had been hospitalized in the Cardio-thoracic center in Monte Carlo and then transferred to the intensive care unit following the aggravation due to a bronchopulmonary infection.
Capri, the Living Room of the World , remembers it with affection, because this island was the first stop on the honeymoon of the couple so envied in the 1950s. Ranieri and Grace, after 19 April 1956, the day of their “yes”, set out for the Gulf of Naples with the Yacht ‘Deo Juvante’ (“with God’s help”) and, once on the island, they were able to appreciate and love the natural beauty of Capri.
Another and more recent memory that links the island to the Principality dates back to 1997, when on the occasion of the seven hundredth anniversary of the small state, Alberto, with a government delegation, visited Naples; on that occasion, the mayor of Capri Costantino Federico met the Ambassador of Monaco to Italy, René Novella, who among other things was the French-language translator of Curzio Malaparte’s novel “The skin”. That was the first official occasion for the start of friendship and exchange relations between Capri and Monte Carlo, which continued later when the mayor himself was invited to the Principality of Monaco.
Several times, however, his daughter Carolina has landed in Capri with the yacht purchased by the late Stefano Casiraghi, the ‘Pascha III’ (name formed by the initials of their three children, Pierre, Andrea and Charlotte). Ranieri, ruler of the small state of 32 thousand inhabitants since 1949, was succeeded at the age of 47 by Prince Albert who took over the regency on 31 March but had already actively participated in the government since 1997. The honeymoon was the only time Ranieri set foot in the Salotto del Mondo , but for the island remains the pride and the moving memory of having been chosen as the first destination.
