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Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy

b. 1940

Born
24 Feb 1940, Naples
Country of birth
Kingdom of Italy, today Italy

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

facts
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sources
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Facts and their sources

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A life in time

  1. Born · Naples

    Birth, Naples

What was it like?

The world around Naples, 1940: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

When Princess was born in 1940, Naples belonged to the Kingdom of Italy, ruled by Otto I the Great.

Who ruled

  • Otto I the Great

    Monarch of Italy, 951 · Kingdom of Italy

  • Adelaide of Italy

    Monarch of Italy, 947 · Kingdom of Italy

  • Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

    Monarch of Italy, 1900–1946 · Kingdom of Italy

Born the same year

  • Mario Andretti

    Italian-American racing driver (born 1940)

  • Dario Argento

    Italian film director and screenwriter (born 1940)

  • John Lennon

    British musician (1940–1980)

  • Pelé

    Brazilian footballer (1940–2022)

  • Bruce Lee

    Hong Kong–American martial artist and actor (1940–1973)

  • Jair da Costa

    Brazilian footballer (1940–2025)

Fashion

Homemade Clothing and Tailoring Prevailed

Most Italians wore clothing made by home seamstresses or tailors because ready-to-wear garments were not yet common. Women often sewed, remade, or dyed garments at home as a productive leisure activity.

Rural Women Wore Regional Costumes

Rural housewives were sometimes permitted to wear traditional regional costumes during parades as an alternative to the official uniform. The regime promoted this to emphasize national tradition rather than personal style.

Music

Radio opera in rural homes

Rural families listened to opera broadcasts on the radio at home, treating the experience as a theatrical event.

State-sponsored folk music festivals

The Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND) organized massive folk music and dance surveys and festivals across Italian provinces.

Getting around
Around 1936–1936

Fiat 500 Topolino introduction in 1936

The Fiat 500, introduced in 1936 and known as the Topolino, cost 1,300 lire and became the car for the majority of Italians.

Around 1920–1939

Carriage travel San Marino to Rimini

Traveling 25 km between San Marino and Rimini by horse-drawn carriage took three hours in summer, increasing to four or five hours in winter when horses were replaced by mules or oxen.

Daily life

Cramped sleeping and cold winters

Sleeping arrangements were often cramped, with some families sharing a single bed among many people or using mattresses filled with cornhusks or sheep wool that felt as hard as a rock. In cold weather, they relied on warmers, such as the prete or trabiccolo, to heat their beds.

Limited access to basic utilities

Many homes lacked electricity or running water; families often used lanterns with oil wicks for light and fetched water from public town fountains.

Food
Around 1939–1939

Chicory coffee during rationing

When coffee was rationed in 1939, laborers often drank a bitter chicory brew, sometimes corrected with grappa.

Around 1944–1944

Skyrocketing black market prices in 1944

During the food crisis of 1944 in Rome, black market prices soared, with olive oil reaching 1,200 lire and meat 160 lire per kilogram by the end of March.

Prices and wages

Food and clothing prices in 1940

In 1940, a kilogram of bread cost 1.60 lire, while a kilogram of beef cost 7 lire and a pair of shoes cost at least 30 lire.

Around 1941–1945

Escalating costs of footwear during war

The cost of men's shoes in Turin increased from about 156 lire in 1941 to over 3,000 lire by 1945.

Work
Around 1935–1935

Building laborers' hours and wages in Rome

In 1935, laborers on a building scheme in Rome worked from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and earned approximately 15 shillings a week. Despite official talk of a 40-hour week, these workers remained bound to long hours and low pay.

Around 1925–1939

Labor, pay, and songs of rice workers

To endure 8- to 12-hour workdays in the rice paddies, mondine sang to pace their labor and pass time. In 1938, a worker could earn 220 lire plus a few kilograms of rice for the entire 40-day season, while a kilogram of rice cost nearly 2 lire.

During their lifetime

  1. 1946

    Italy becomes a Republic

    In 1946, Italian voters chose to abolish the monarchy in a referendum, leading to the birth of the Republic.

  2. 1957

    Fiat 500 launched

    The launch of the Fiat 500 in 1957 helped transform the daily lives of families by making private motorization widely accessible.

  3. 1970

    Divorce legalized

    Italy legalized divorce in 1970, a significant change in social rights and family law.

  4. 1973

    1973 Oil Crisis impact

    The 1973 oil crisis caused a major economic shock, with crude oil prices quadrupling and ending the long period of rapid growth.

  5. 1978

    National Health Service created

    In 1978, the government established a universal National Health Service, providing free medical care to all citizens.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.