Queen Consort
On 9 January 1878, Umberto succeeded as the new King of Italy. She became his Queen consort and remained by his side for the rest of his reign. Umberto, after the attempted murders by anarchists Giovanni Passannante and Pietro Acciarito, was killed by another anarchist, Gaetano Bresci, on 29 July 1900.
Margherita encouraged artists and writers and founded cultural institutions, notably the Società del Quartetto, and the Casa di Dante. She was a benefactor of many charities, especially the Red Cross.
In 1881, the mining town of Margherita in Assam, India, was named after her Margherita, Assam.
In 1889, the Margherita pizza, whose red tomatoes, green basil, and white cheese represent the Italian flag, was named after her. Her name means "daisy" in Italian. In 1906, the Queen mother’s nephew Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi made the first ascent of the highest summit of Mount Stanley (the third highest mountain in Africa) and named it Margherita Peak in her honour.
On 18 August 1893, in the company of various guides, porters, Alpini, politicians and aristocrats, she climbed the Punta Gnifetti (or Signalkuppe), a peak of the Monte Rosa massif on the Swiss-Italian border, for the inauguration of the mountain hut named after her. At 4,554 metres the Capanna Regina Margherita, remains the highest hut in Europe.
Politically she leant towards Fascism—in October 1922 the quadrumvirs (Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo, Michele Bianchi and Cesare Maria de Vecchi) visited her at Bordighera to pay their respects prior to the March on Rome.
Read more about this topic: Margherita Of Savoy
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“Ah petal, dust and wind-fall
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