Prince Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta, Italy’s Vintner Royal

Amedeo, Duke of Aosta

He was born in Florence, Italy on September 27, 1943, the only child of Prince Aimone, Duke of Spoleto, and Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark. The Duke of Spoleto succeeded his brother, Prince Amedeo as Duke of Aosta after the latter’s death in a British concentration camp in Nairobi in 1942. He was also king of the fascist-controlled Croatia from March 1941 until July 1943.

Barely a year later, on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, the Nazis deported little Amedeo to the Austrian concentration camp of Hirschegg, near Graz, together with his mother and his cousins Margherita and Maria Cristina, daughters of his uncle Amedeo,  and the duchess, Anna d'Orléans. After they were freed from the concentration camp in May 1945, Amedeo lived for a few weeks in Switzerland and on July 7, 1945 he returned to Italy with his mother, first in Milan, where Amedeo saw his father for the first time, and then in Naples and finally in Fiesole, near Florence. In 1948, his father died of a heart attack in Buenos Aires and Amedeo assumed the ducal title and the position as head of the House of Savoy-Aosta. (Read this article from Repubblica)

Princess Irene, Duchess of Aosta, holds her baby, Prince Amedeo. 

He studied at the Collegio alle Querce in Florence and at Seaford College in England, then at the Morosini Naval College in Venice. He took up courses at the Naval Academy of Livorno. He also graduated political science at the University of Florence.

In 2006, Amedeo  claimed the headship of the  House of Savoy and proclaimed himself Duke of Savoy. He argued that his third cousin Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples had lost his rights to head the royal house when he married, just following the time of his arrest, without asking the permission of his father, former King Umberto II in 1971. Such authorization had been required under monarchical law. 

The Duke of Aosta and his wife, Princess Claude of Orleans.

The Duke and Duchess of Aosta with their three children.

This family conflict escalated and reached a humiliating point when the two cousins had a fight in 2004. During a soiree  at the wedding celebrations of the future King Felipe  of Spain, Amedeo  reportedly approached Vittorio Emmanuele l, who then punched him twice in the face. The duke tripped backward, down the steps, but Queen Anne-Marie of Greece quickly held him up from falling behind. She also helped him move indoors while an Arab potentate applied ice pack on his bruised face and lips. An infuriated King Juan Carlos was believed that have uttered "Nunca más" (Never again) – which may have meant that he would never invite his Italian cousins to his family gatherings. 

In February 2010, the court of Arezzo ordered the Duke of Aosta and his son to pay Emmanuelle Filiberto 50,000 euros as damages and to cease using the surname Savoy but instead bear the name Savoy-Aosta. However, the decision was rescinded following an appeal filed by Amedeo and his son, Aimone. 

The Duke of Aosta with his second wife, Silvia

The Duke of Aosta was married twice. On July 22, 1964, he married Princess Claude of Orleans in Sintra, Portugal. The princess, born in 1943, was the ninth child and fifth daughter of Henri, Comte de Paris, Orléanist pretender to the French throne, and of Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza. They had three children: Princess Bianca of Savoy-Aosta (b. Florence, 2 April 1966), Prince Aimone, Duke of Apulia (b. Florence, 13 October 1967), Princess Mafalda  (b. 20 September 1969)

They separated in 1976 and were granted divorce in 1982. The Roman Catholic church annulled their marriage  in 1987. Shortly afterwards, he married Silvia Paternò di Spedalotto (born 1953), the daughter of Vincenzo Paternò di Spedalotto, sixth Marchese di Reggiovanni and of Rosanna Bellardo e Ferraris. He also sired a daughter with Kyara van Ellinkhuizen.

Amedeo, who lived in the village of San Rocco, some 15 miles from Arezzo,  was involved in various agricultural enterprises, including wine production. In the 1970s, he became an agricultural entrepreneur, managing the Borro estate, in Arezzo, which was recently sold to the Florentine Ferragamo family. Despite the sale of the estate,  he remained in the area and stayed in a "farmhouse", where he devoted himself to the vines and production of good wine.  The duke loved the sea and in Pantelleria, he and his wife Silvia, settled on a holiday home where they grew a collection of succulents, and agaves, which grow regardless of the sun and wind.  

According to the Italian daily, Il Messaggero, Amedeo toyed with the idea of finding evidences of his father’s attempt, through his contacts with the British in 1942, to switch Italy’s alliance to the Allied forces and free Italy from Hitler's grip. His death, however, put this attempts to an end.  

Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, passed away on June 1, 2021.  He had undergone a surgery to remove a tumor in a kidney. On May 27, he was admitted to the San Donato hospital as a minor intervention was needed and a surgery was needed. His condition seemed to have improved and he was ready for discharged but the end came to him after he was struck by heart attack.