Esselunga: from 1957 to the early 1990s, as recalled by a ‘grocer’s son’
Esselunga’s origins are linked to the history of the city of Milan
Social media, Father Christmas syndrome and Le Ossa dei Caprotti
I am not, a ‘target’, a bank counter, a post office box or Father Christmas. Nor am I a punching ball on which to unload one’s anger with impunity
The Caprotti family: the conflict between brothers Claudio, Guido and Bernardo Caprotti as seen by Marianne Caprotti
“My two youngest sons were both deprived of their jobs and therefore of their lives’. Marianne Caprotti, Bernardo Caprotti’s mother, 1982. History repeated itself later with me. By Giuseppe Caprotti. 1 May, Labour Day
The house in Via del Lauro, the other heart of the Caprotti family
Deciding to have a permanent home in Milan, grandfather Peppino Caprotti purchased an entire building in the central Via del Lauro. The renovation is overseen by Luigi Caccia Dominioni, an architect, designer and urban planner of international renown, convinced by his grandmother Marianne Maire Caprotti thanks to her particularly tenacious character, which Caccia Dominioni, now 100 years old, still remembered.
Caprotti family’s residences: Villa Nadina, Forte dei Marmi, 1960s
Villa Nadina in Forte dei Marmi, Versilia, was bought by my grandfather Peppino. In his will, grandfather left it to his third-born son, Uncle Claudio, who, at the time of his divorce, in turn gave it to his wife Paola Albera, sister of Giuliana, my father Bernardo's wife. In 2018, Villa Nadina was sold to a Russian tycoon
The Caprotti family and their centre: the Villa San Valerio in Albiate
Albiate is where the Caprotti family built its fortunes. The house was more than just a dwelling. Even today, you only have to walk down through the fields for no more than five hundred metres and, past the bridge over the Lambro river, you arrive at the abandoned textile factory that once made their wealth possible.
Bernardo Caprotti and Giorgio Della Seta: the ‘duel’ of 1957
The great thing about this story is that a beautiful friendship was born with Marco Della Seta, Giorgio's son, in Paris in the 1980s.
New Princes will buy Carrefour Italia supermarkets: the difference between cheer and reality
One cannot improvise as a retailer and, above all, it is not always the case that aggregating several realities, with different cultures, brings strength: the acquisition of Newlat reminds me of the events of Standa and those of Auchan-Conad, but also of the Carrefour- Promodes merger or the events of Walgreens with Boots. Not to mention the lesson of the bankruptcy of Sears or that of the closure of Dominick’s for manifest incompetence
Gianni Albertini: his example and memory today
On 18 March 2025, the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan hosted an event dedicated to Gianni Albertini and his 1929 HEIMEN-SUCAI Arctic expedition. I discovered that his example of human and scientific expedition is still valid today: the PolarQuest Association demonstrated this with its expeditions on the route of the airship Italia on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the expedition, and I myself was able to experience last year, as a simple tourist, what it means to be in places that speak to the soul.
Gianni Albertini: the documentary of the expedition, revealing ice and people
On 18 March 2025, the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan hosted an event dedicated to Gianni Albertini and his 1929 HEIMEN-SUCAI Arctic expedition. During the event, documentary filmmaker Christian Cinetto presented the footage that cinematographer Umberto della Valle shot during the months of the journey, which not only captures testimonies but also the emotions and personalities of the protagonists.
Gianni Albertini: The Arctic Expedition in Search of the Missing of the Noble Expedition (1929)
Gianni Albertini had experienced at first hand, as a member of the expedition, the tragedy of the airship Italia, which had crashed into the North Pole pack in the spring of 1928, and of six crewmen who had remained in the airship's envelope, disappeared in the fog and were never found again. He feels obliged to search for the missing, encouraged by their relatives. The expedition is prepared with an organisational speed that is astonishing even by today's standards, less than three months, and according to criteria of particular efficiency and intelligence.
