The New York Times had a completely charming, stupid and funny story about European royalty this week. Throughout Europe, there are descendants of deposed royalty living in semi-exile. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh was one of them – he was a baby and a Greek prince when Greece abolished their monarchy and sent their royal family into exile. Something similar happened in Italy – the Italian royals were deposed after World War II. The Italian royals are the House of Savoy, and the son of the last king of Italy is Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia. He and his family live a life of privileged semi-exile in France, Italy and Monaco. And he just gave his non-existent throne to his teenage granddaughter, who is an influencer in Paris.
Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia, the son of the last king of Italy, gave his granddaughter a big 16th birthday present. In a formal 2019 decree, the âDuke of Savoy, Prince of Naples and by the grace of God direct heir to Head of the Royal House of Savoy,â amended a medieval law that for centuries had restricted succession in his royal line to male heirs.
He bumped âour beloved granddaughterâ Vittoria Cristina Chiara Adelaide Maria up the royal food chain, making her the first woman in 1,000 years to be invested with the authority to eventually lead the family and stake a claim to the defunct monarchy.
âIt was the best gift he could give me,â Vittoria, now 17 and a burgeoning Instagram influencer, said from her Paris home. While Vittoriaâs father in Monte Carlo and mother in Paris were as delighted as her grandparents in Gstaad about her ascension to the top of Italyâs would-be royal family, a rival branch of Savoias were not pleased. Not at all.
âTotally illegitimate,â said Prince Aimone di Savoia Aosta, a cousin and rival claimant, who works as an executive for the Pirelli tire company in Moscow. And so began the latest chapter in an ongoing dynastic dispute between the pretenders to Italyâs pretend throne. There are bitter feelings, thrown punches, warring noble committees, dukedom politics and as of last month, Vittoriaâs ascending social media status. What there is not is an actual crown to fight over.
Italy is a republic, having abolished the monarchy 75 years ago for its disastrous support of Mussolini, and Italians have approximately zero interest in a royal restoration.
âNever say never,â said Vittoriaâs father, Emanuele Filiberto, an Italian television personality who claims the title Prince of Venice, which is also the name of his Los Angeles restaurant and former food truck. (âWe do a lot of film premieres. We did Jumanji,â he said.) Obviously, he said, the monarchy wasnât returning âtomorrow,â but he had no sons and the family needed a head of the royal household to run its historic orders. Plus, âwe also have a lot of people who are seeing the family with a potential comeback.â
Few Italians want that, even in Carignano, an ancestral home of Vittorio Emanueleâs branch of the family, which Vittoria became princess of on her 16th birthday. âNever heard of her,â said teenagers, middle-aged shoppers, and old men with canes as they walked near the Piazza Savoia, once home to a castle, now a parking lot.
I mean⌠it seems like the family just wanted attention? Which is the currency of modern celebrity, the nouveau royalty. He or she who gets the most attention becomes the biggest celebrity, and therefore is the more legitimate prince or princess. Honestly though, it sounds like more fun to be a royal in exile. No real job description, you can do what you want, you still technically have some kind of title.
Anyway, Faux Crown Princess Vittoria is very pretty and she seems like a cool Gen Zer. Iâm enjoying her Instagram!!
Photos courtesy of Vittoriaâs Instagram.
i am truly concerned for the future of humans.
We all know how this ends lol. What we’ll have to endure before we get there is frightening.
+1
Prince Albert used to hang with her Dad and mother used to be a French actress. Nobody is interested
I swear, people born into wealth are so wasteful. You have the world at your feet, and all these kids want to do is model. Itâs so boring.
they aren’t born into wealth for the most part. Most of these European royals lost their fortunes ages ago, and keep their relevance by glomming onto celebrities or wealthier royal relatives. Lots of their jewelry ends up at auction. There’s a House of Savoy tiara being auctioned at Sothebys in Geneva this week–should fetch about a million or so. I’ll bet 2 dollars that the money will go to pay debts.
To be fair, I meant just wealthy kids in general. Trust fund kids and nepotism stars. I donât know anything at all about her or other royals.
They did Jumanji, you guys.
haha right? That jumped out at me too. They did Jumanji!
I’m looking at the menu and it looks really good, lol. I love Italian food SO MUCH.
Where’s @Seraphina? They have homemade pasta!
ETA everyone should go to their website and visit the “about” section. “there is only one truck fit for a king.” LOL.
Ha! Or, should we say, Prince! Plus, they have the Royal Standard of ingredients.
The menu and pictures look great. I’d try out The Prince of Venice if it were near me. Watched Tara the Food Pervert’s video under the Press section. Pasta looks yummy.
This is a fun story!
When the right to rule because of who you were born to finally ends and Reality says hold my beer. Just another working stiff like everyone else.
I mean I donât really see the point since she has no throne to sit on and most likely never will. But yay for not having a male primogeniture for a non existent throne I guess?
Is she related to Duchess Rootintuttin von Moneybags? LOL!
she better hope so–House of Savoy has been auctioning their jewels for a long time.
I am loving the snark in this NYT article. Great writing. That’s all I’ve got. This is funny.
Right?!? These were my favourites:
â …an ongoing dynastic dispute between the pretenders to Italyâs pretend throneâ
â …who claims the title Prince of Venice, which is also the name of his Los Angeles restaurant and former food truckâ
The snark is amazing! (and deserved)
This is absolute gold. A Russian tire salesman and a 17year old âinfluencerâ, whose father ran a food truck, are having a succession crisis over a non-existent throne đđđ. Forget Game of Thrones, I need eight seasons of this clusterf***.
Too funny.
Just to be precise, though, Greece abolished its monarchy for only 8 years at the time of Prince Phillip. During those 8 years there must have been about 25 different governments and any number of coups, so they reinstated the monarchy in 1935. Phillip’s titles were reinstated, which is why he had to renounce them to marry Elizabeth. Later, Paul, Phillip’s first cousin, became King of Greece – Constantine II after that, and the monarchy was finally abolished in 1974.
And Greece’s monarchy only existed for a short period of time. The monarchy had been in existence for less than 100 years when Philip was born, then ultimately being done away for good in the 1970s. So the entire monarchy existed for about 130 years, total. LOL. Calling anyone a Greek royal is a joke.
I don’t know about “joke,” but the monarchy was imposed on Greece by the “Major Powers” which felt a monarchy would stabilize the political unrest after the War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire. I guess they thought that tying Greece to the dynastic families of Europe would…I don’t know what. We know how well those ties did during WWI.
Here in Italy we’re laughing out loud about this interview.
There are few things that bring the Italians to agree as the dislike for the Savoia family does.
Seconded. They are a joke, pretty much. đ
Kaiser, I could have the wrong understanding, but PP was not really “Greek”. If traced far back enough, his linage goes back to Demark on both sides of the family. His great great grandfather (I believe) was placed on the Greek throne shortly after Greece won independence from the Ottoman empire. Many Greeks find it insulting to call him Greek – especially when he did nothing for Greece. Yes he is labeled Greek but is not truly Greek. Hashtag: bring them back.
he was literally a prince of Greece, that’s all I meant.
Understood, just a giving historical background. Most of the royal houses were from a dynasty if I remember my history correctly. But I am also biased, I think all monarchies should be abolished.
Iâm Greek. My motherâs whole family is Greek. At some point my bloodline was Greek royalty, but many were.
Iâm fine with Philip being considered Greek.
Weâre a pretty relaxed people now that are even ok with the Turks. Generally speaking.
I don’t know – Wiglet watcher, Erdogan needs to have an eye on him. He is not to be trusted.
Same here. Phillip was born in Greece and his father was born in Greece – that’s all you need to be a Greek citizen. That Phillip chose later to renounce his title and citizenship is a different matter. I don’t know of anyone who really cares one way or the other about Phillip, except as a fact of history.
Seraphina
True, but I meant the people like cultural or racism hatred.
With all the history of war today itâs put aside and theyâre no longer rivals down to individual citizens harboring for the past.
It’s quite fascinating because apparently there is a dispute. The dude making the dispute is a cousin who has some claim to the throne and currently he’s working as a manager of some store. Also, a spot where their castle used to be is now a parking lot. Crazy stuff. The reason why it matters though is because they make bank by issuing some type of patents. Like it’s a steady good income. This is why it’s a “big” deal to those people. Whoever can make the claim can keep that income stream coming in. I find it funny that Italians don’t care,
LOL this is probably about furthering her Instagram career. “Future queen of italy” sounds a lot better than “royal in exile” I guess.
Love the NYT article. All this fighting about a throne that no longer exists and probably never will again.
There is the story about Emmanuele Filiberto and Aimone (the elders) getting into a fight at Felipe and Letizia of Spain’s wedding 17 years ago. King Juan Carlos was said to be the one who broke them up and threw both of them out of the reception.
These ex-royals are so entertaining in their delusions. Marie-Chantal of Greece acts so high and mighty for a “Princess” that has no country. Constantine of Greece refused to take on a surname for him and his family so they can keep pretending Greece is theirs.
Iâm loving this ex-royalty gossip! Celebitchy should delve more into these kinds of stories.
Haha my Mother is Italian and she laughed when I read her this and said “they are nobodies, there is NO throne” hahahah.
Emanuele Filiberto, Vittoria’s father is considered a tv personality at best, the great-grandson and grandson of traitors at worst, so he should shut up about the possibility of an Italian kingdom. There is a great division between the Italian regions with the North hating the South and vice versa, but if there is one thing we all agree on is that the kingdom is done. Finito e grazie. There was an article on an Italian paper that explained why these guys were proud of being part of a royal family, even without a kingdom, they get invited to royal events around Europe (weddings, funerals, christenings, and stuff) and they can make money by selling off nobiliary titles. Grifters gotta grift.
Emanuele Filiberto was in a commercial, and in the Italian version of Dancing with the star.
I think I can talk for all the Italians: we consider the monarchy a joke.
On a more personal note: I think being a TV (or Youtube?) personality is the future of the British monarchy.
Meh. So tiresome to hear that the North hates the South and vice versa.
I saw this story trending on Twitter the other day, it was hilariously amusing. Vittoria looks like any other wannabe Instamodel influencer doing the stupid duck lips face/fish gape and the emo face expressions. I had hoped that trend would die with us millennials on MySpace and Facebook but it looks like Gen Z followed in our footsteps.
Honestly, this is the kind of entertaining, low stakes distraction I find funny.
Seconded. The Russian Romanovs are heavily feuding: Notable that Prince Michael of Kent is among the 8 top contenders for Czar/Tsar.
Why does she keep just sitting a scarf on top of her head? What… what is happening there?
This is utterly BS and Emanuele Filiberto is a tool, he tried to become an entertainer and that failed too. Imagine that. “Never say never” my foot, he can stay where he is, Italy doesn’t want him or any royals. They will never wash away their contribution to fascism and Mussolini dictatorship -or better, the only way to do so is to stay the f- away and shut up.
Sheâs stunning. I guess not related somehow to the Windsors.
My dad called me Princess too.
Her throne doesn’t even exist and she’s still doing more work for it than Bill does for his real one
I’m also very interested in her instagram đ
Again, the people gotta stop naming their kids Victoria.