Life
Born the fifth of six children of the shipowner Gioacchino and of Laura Cafiero, he was on his part the shipowner and founder of the Flota Lauro, one of the most powerful Italian fleets of all time and one of the major fortunes in the south of Italy, in addition to the owner of a true financial empire created by himself. A determining fact in marking the force of his activities was his genial intuition that his workers should participate in the benefits of their activities.
Often found in society news for his frequent romantic encounters, the popular tradition recorded legendary characteristics to his amatory capacities.
As a politician, he maintained a great popularity and was venerated by the majority of the population of the city of Naples, to the point that in the municipal elections of 1952 and 1956 he received almost 300,000 votes, higher than any number of votes received by any candidate in local elections up to that point. In the general elections of 1953, he received 680,000 votes for the Chamber of Deputies, also a number that had never been achieved before.
During the decades of Italian fascism, he was named the National Counselor of the Chamber of the fasces and the corporations, appointed to this position by Galeazzo Ciano, the son-in-law of Benito Mussolini himself, who was active in shipping commerce. Also during this period he was named president of the Naples football club SSC Napoli, where he succeeded Giorgio Ascarelli.
After the war, after an initial participation in the Common Man's Front, he became active in the monarchist movement of Alfredo Covelli and financially supported the birth of the Monarchist National Party (PNM), and was for a long time the mayor of Naples, appreciated and questioned for his management of the public funds.
A square in the coastal town of Sorrento is named in his honour.
Read more about this topic: Achille Lauro
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend’s life also, in our own, to the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... when you make it a moral necessity for the young to dabble in all the subjects that the books on the top shelf are written about, you kill two very large birds with one stone: you satisfy precious curiosities, and you make them believe that they know as much about life as people who really know something. If college boys are solemnly advised to listen to lectures on prostitution, they will listen; and who is to blame if some time, in a less moral moment, they profit by their information?”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)