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Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy

b. 1943

Born
2 Feb 1943, Quirinal Palace
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 · Quirinal Palace

    Birth, Quirinal Palace

What was it like?

The world around Quirinal Palace, 1943: 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 1943, Quirinal Palace 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 around the same time

  • Martin Scorsese

    1942 · American filmmaker (born 1942)

  • Dino Zoff

    1942 · Italian association football player and manager

  • John Lennon

    1940 · British musician (1940–1980)

  • Pelé

    1940 · Brazilian footballer (1940–2022)

  • Bruce Lee

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

  • Muhammad Ali

    1942 · American boxer (1942–2016)

Fashion

The Single Sunday Suit

Country men owned only one dark suit for feast days and weddings, which was passed down through generations and frequently resoled when the leather shoes wore out.

Traditional Rural Women's Attire

In rural areas, women over 30 typically wore long black dresses with modest bodices, often using a durable apron made of heavy fabric similar to denim.

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 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.

Around 1939–1939

Chicory coffee during rationing

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

Prices and wages

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.

Wartime price inflation for bread

Due to the black market during World War II, the price of bread in Turin soared from 2.35 lire in 1941 to 46 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.