Le Ossa dei Caprotti

The Caprotti family: Carla Fossati Bellani Venosta, 1958

Carla Fossati Bellani Venosta (1924 – 2019), was my grandfather Guido Venosta’s second wife. She was an internationally renowned designer. In 2000 he promoted the establishment of the ‘European Foundation Guido Venosta, the man against cancer’ (today ‘Fondazione Guido Venosta’), whose aim was and is, ‘to honour Guido Venosta’s memory and borrow his experience, to promote and contribute to raising public education towards the highest cultural ideals and solidarity’.

The Caprotti family: Bernardo Caprotti and Giorgina’s wedding, November 1958, Uncle Claudio and Grandmother Marianne

“Grandma has a weakness: she is madly in love with her third son, my uncle Claudio. Some friends told me that Claudio was allowed to have breakfast and lunch in bed when he was in Albiate. Bernardo suffered from this unique relationship and I am convinced that jealousy between the two brothers was one of the causes of the quarrels that shook our family.

The Caprotti family: Bernardo and Giorgina’s wedding, November 1958, Guido and Bernardo’s friends

The picture shows the groom (second from the right), Virginio Rivolta (first on the right), himself a textile entrepreneur for generations as one of the heirs of Rivolta Carmignani of Milan, and Guido Caprotti, Bernardo Caprotti’s brother (third from the left).

The Caprotti family: Bernardo Caprotti and Giorgina’s wedding, November 1958. Grandmother Luisa with her mother

My mother is a little younger than Guido Caprotti, the second of the three brothers, and with her mother and brother she spends the summer in Forte dei Marmi, where the Caprotti family also spends their holidays. At Forte Giorgina meets Bernardo, who is twice her age but is intelligent, charming, with a wry and ready wit. She just wants to run away from home, and the idea of joining a family as apparently united as Bernardo’s attracts her; he has decided that the time has come to settle down, and a young bride from Milan’s upper industrial bourgeoisie suits him perfectly.

The Caprotti family: my grandmother Luisa holding my mother, 1940

Grandmother Luisa Quintavalle in the first photographic portrait with her eldest daughter Giorgina, born at the end of May.

The Caprotti family and sport: maternal grandmother Luisa Quintavalle with Zeno Colò, March 1945

My grandmother Luisa loved skiing, and she was also very good at it. In a photo preserved among family heirlooms, she is pictured in a Swiss alpine restaurant with a group of skiers including, to her right in the picture, the great champion Zeno Colò.

The Caprotti family’s ancestors: my maternal great-grandmother Adele Portaluppi Quintavalle, grandmother Luisa’s mother, 1942

Adele was the sister of Piero Portaluppi, a well-known Milanese architect, and belonged to the Milanese upper middle class. In the photo she is in the centre between her daughter Luisa Quintavalle, holding her own daughter Giorgina Venosta, and a third woman identifiable as Luisa Gadda Portaluppi, Adele and Piero’s mother, Milan, April 1942.

The Caprotti family: my maternal grandmother Luisa Quintavalle, her mother Adele Portaluppi Quintavalle and a friend, c. 1950s.

Adele and her husband Umberto were avid skiers. She did not stop even when Umberto fell into a crevasse and died in 1959. She continued skiing until the end of her days and when rheumatoid arthritis prevented her from gripping poles in her hands, she began to go without.

The Caprotti family: my mother Giorgina Venosta with Uncle Giuseppe called Beppo, 1944 and 1945

My mother Giorgina was born in May 1940, a few days before Italy also entered the war. One of her first memories as a very young child is when, with her younger brother Giuseppe, she was helped by two ‘spalloni’ to cross the Valtournenche passes to find refuge in Switzerland, where these photographs were taken, one in 1944, one in 1945.

The Caprotti family’s ancestors: maternal grandmother Luisa Quintavalle at Sestriere, January 1939

I had a special relationship with my grandmother Luisa. We used to meet at her place and the only gift I remember from her was Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. She had given it to me to fill in the gaps at the Swiss school I attended but, above all, she had given me something much more precious: the afternoons we had spent together, during which she had committed herself to explaining such a difficult text to me.

My grandmother Luisa Quintavalle from a period newspaper clipping, ‘Cime Moda’, Cervinia, winter 1936

Grandmother Luisa was not only an excellent sportswoman, but also a protagonist of Milanese fashion. Here she is portrayed in a mountain outfit, of which the archive preserves proof photos. She was a person of undoubted culture, a translator from French and English for the most important Italian publishing houses, as well as an author herself.

The Caprotti family’s ancestors: the ball of my maternal great-grandfather Giuseppe Venosta

My grandfather Guido Venosta worked for a long time at Pirelli, where his father Giuseppe was General Manager and inventor of the first modern football, the ‘Corazza Pirelli’ with a rubber core that would replace the leather balls used until then. The advertisements for the new ball, which was light and durable, were also designed by the famous Marcello Dudovich, who is considered one of the founders of 20th century advertising posters and one of the greatest Italian designers and poster artists. Poster by M. Dudovich, Corazza Pirelli, Museo Nazionale Collezione Salce, Direzione regionale Musei Veneto, published by concession of the Ministry of Culture.

The Caprotti family’s ancestors: maternal great-grandparents, Giuseppe Venosta and Argia Neri Venosta, grandfather Guido’s parents

Giuseppe Venosta (1880 – 1939) was an engineer who worked all his life at Pirelli until his death from cancer, a disease that was incurable at the time, of which his wife Argia was also a victim, some ten years after him. His son Guido, my grandfather, many years later became very involved in the fight against the disease that had killed his father and, a decade later, his mother as well.

The Caprotti family’s ancestors: Piero Portaluppi, great-grandmother Adele’s brother, 1938

His great-grandmother Adele was the sister of architect Piero Portaluppi, who designed many important buildings in Milan such as Villa Necchi Campiglio, the Civic Planetarium in the gardens of Porta Venezia, and the Arengario building. In the photograph Piero Portaluppi is with his wife Lia in 1938.

The Caprotti family and their roots: the maternal family tree

Smiling in the image, in a single picture created for their 25th wedding anniversary, are my great-grandfather Umberto Quintavalle at the time of their wedding and in uniform, his wife Adele Portaluppi, also in the dual role of young bride and current wife and mother, their twin daughters Ida and Luisa (my grandmother), and their son Ferruccio, known as ‘Illo’.

The Caprotti family and their bones: ‘Family Tomb, Act II: High and straightforward’, 2009

In 2009, Manifattura Caprotti in Albiate closed. Although the factory has not belonged to The Caprotti family for a few years now, it is only natural that the mayor Filippo Viganò should turn to Bernardo to try to limit the heavy social impact that this closure will have on the town. Bernardo replied with a long letter, in which he briefly (but not unkindly) dismissed the Manifattura issue, to dwell on the much more serious problem of the cypress trees in Albiate’s cemetery, which thoughtless gardeners are badly pruning, preventing them from growing ‘tall and straight’ as they should.

Le Ossa dei Caprotti: the family tomb, act 1, 1997

In 1997, Dad and the brothers had not spoken for who knows how many years. A few days before Christmas, Bernardo kicks off what in time will turn into a veritable torment. In the Albiate cemetery, the family chapel is in need of urgent restoration because major water infiltrations are compromising both the structure and the coffins stored there. What is striking in the way Bernardo relates the events to Guido and Claudio is the meticulousness of the descriptions. He relates every detail with precision, not sparing them photographs of the battered and possibly open coffins, including that of their father Peppino.

Le Ossa dei Caprotti: San Valerio martyr, 3rd-4th century AD.

Why the title ‘Le Ossa dei Caprotti’?

The Caprotti family and their bones: Milan, Chapel Sanctuary of San Bernardo Caprotti alle Ossa, 17th cent

When, as children, we get to spend some free time with our father, one of our favourite destinations is the 17th-century Oratory of San Bernardo alle Ossa, whose interior is decorated with hundreds of bones and skulls exhumed from the cemetery of the nearby Ospedale del Brolo arranged in niches, on the cornice, adorning the pillars, and decorating the doors. And this detail, which to the eyes and imagination of us children is rather macabre, impresses us greatly. Bones and cemeteries will be almost an obsession in Bernardo’s life.

The Caprotti family and the Esselunga supermarkets: the Aprilia egg, 1950s

Nelson Rockefeller did not only ownEsselunga in Italy. He also owned a company, in Aprilia, that produced eggs…. In 1961, when by then all four of the planned Milanese shops had been opened, the balance sheet figures for the previous year – $200,000 net revenue – showed that not only the idea, but his way of realising it had been successful. Efficient logistics had been created, from the central warehouse to the purchase of large quantities of goods at favourable prices, but also a production chain of its own: IBEC took over a large poultry farm in Aprilia, the ‘Chicken City’, and turned it into a laying hen farm with an egg processing plant.

The Caprotti family and the Esselunga supermarkets: the Americans’ pasta factory, c. 1950s.

With regard to the supply of certain fresh products, the problem was the lack of adequately prepared and controlled goods. This is why Esselunga decided to start producing on its own as early as 1959, setting up a bakery, an ice-cream parlour that sold its products even in winter, a coffee roasting plant, a cold cuts warehouse, a poultry farm to supply fresh eggs, but above all a large pasta factory for ravioli, tortellini and gnocchi, the success of which even excited the Americans, who were able to sell one of their favourite products, pasta, to Italians at excellent quality and 50% savings.

The Caprotti family and supermarkets: the first Esselunga advertisements, 1957

In the context of the ‘cold war’ that divided the two great continental blocs of the United States (with their part of Europe) and the Soviet Union (with the other part of Europe), supermarket advertising was designed not only to lure customers with abundant goods, unknown delicacies and competitive prices, but also to emphasise, with slogans such as Shopping is equal for all, that private enterprise can also bring benefits to all levels of the social classes (and not only the public, notably communist).

The Caprotti family and Esselunga: the first customers, 1957

The opening of the first supermarket was a remarkable success both in terms of public interest and in terms of prices, which were generally well below the average level by a good 15 to 20% depending on the products. Which all went generally well, except for self-service meat, which was initially a flop. It was only after many months of effort that the supermarket managed to persuade the Italian housewife to adapt to the do-it-yourself approach in this field as well.

The Caprotti family and the supermarket: Ferdinando Schiavoni, Mario Crespi and Bernardo Caprotti at the inauguration of the first shop in Milan, Viale Regina Giovanna, 1957

At the inauguration of Milan’s and Italy’s first supermarket, the Viale Regina Giovanna shop, one photograph among many shows two of the key figures who made it possible: Ferdinando Schiavoni, one of the not many English-speaking people in Italy, a link between IBEC managers and the Caprotti family, an early manager of what would later become Esselunga, and Mario Crespi, who with his brother Vittorio, Marco Brunelli and brothers Bernardo and Guido Caprotti was one of the Americans’ main minority shareholders in what was the start of a great adventure.

The Caprotti family and supermarkets: US President John F. Kennedy with Nelson Rockefeller, 1960s

Nelson Rockefeller, a great American entrepreneur and politician, founded IBEC after World War II, a company whose goal was not only profit, but also economic and social growth in the expansion areas, the poorest countries

The Caprotti family and the supermarkets: Marco Brunelli, Bernardo Caprotti and Giorgina Venosta at the “Cervo d’Oro” in Cortina, February 1958

From the very beginning, Marco Brunelli struggled to get along with Bernardo Caprotti. The first disagreements began to manifest themselves blatantly in early 1960. In May, Brunelli and my uncle Guido founded a chain of supermarkets together with the aim of focusing on Rome, the city that IBEC’s men had discarded…

The Caprotti family and the supermarkets: Guido Caprotti with Marco Brunelli and two friends, 1950s

Marco Brunelli, a close friend of Guido Caprotti’s since high school, and a member of one of Milan’s most prominent families, was the first to come into contact with the American IBEC and its plan to open a series of supermarkets in Italy, and he also brought Guido and Bernardo into the negotiations. This dispels, at least in part, the story always told in the family that, thanks to a fortunate conversation overheard at the Grand Hotel in St. Moritz, the Caprotti family had entered as protagonists in the negotiations together with Brunelli. The latter later became the first president of Supermarkets Italiani, later Esselunga.

The Caprotti family: LEGEND

The line between reality and narrative is sometimes thin, almost imperceptible. But there comes a time when reconstruction is necessary: the Hotel Palace toilet in St. Moritz, overheard conversations, the birth of Esselunga.
The story, the real one, is another.

The Caprotti family and supermarkets: the importance of Guido (1929 – 2012)

Guido, brother of Bernardo and Claudio Caprotti, with the help of his friend Marco Brunelli managed to get the Caprotti family, with other shareholders, to enter into a partnership with Nelson Rockefeller’s Ibec to create a chain of supermarkets in Italy. It was also with Brunelli that, a few years later, he became co-founder of GS (Generale Supermercati)

The Caprotti family: my father Bernardo Caprotti, 1925 – 2016

The picture from almost a hundred years ago shows a pale, curly-haired child, confident and smiling. The now receding adult at ease on the sofa in the second picture was already my father. From him I received a great deal in every sense, from the well-being in which I grew up to the possibility, thanks to his insistence, of doing a job that became a passion. Unfortunately to his dark side I also owe the end of that job and the years that were taken away from me.

The Caprotti family and friends: Guido Vergani, journalist, friend of Claudio Caprotti and Giorgina, ca. 1990s.

On a trip to Tehran to meet the Shah of Persia [Rockefeller] stops off in Milan and, to seal the alliance with the Italian partners, goes with his wife Mary to visit them. A dinner at The Caprotti family’s was also on the agenda, but the night before Guido Vergani, who was to become a famous journalist but at the time was not yet twenty and was a friend of Claudio Caprotti’s, went to visit him, and in the excitement of the moment he opened the refrigerator and without anyone noticing he ate all the rolls that his grandmother Marianne had cooked for the occasion. The dinner is a success even without the rolls, but that episode will still anger Marianne many years later.

Peppino Caprotti’s friend: Nando Angeloni, 1940s

Grandfather Peppino’s economic fortunes shifted the family’s centre of gravity from the Albiate countryside to Milan. Thanks to Nando Angeloni, a fraternal friend who took care of all the family’s bureaucratic and economic matters, he had taken a house in Via del Lauro and came into contact with the city’s most important families.

The Caprotti family and the war: grandfather Peppino’s medals, post-1919

The box, kept among my grandfather Peppino’s heirlooms, contains the Victory Medal, granted to soldiers who had taken part in the First World War, and the cross of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of Saint Sylvester Pope, attributed perhaps to Peppino, perhaps to another Caprotti well-deserving person. On the uniform, also kept among my grandfather’s heirlooms, are the two ribbons of the Distintivo per le Fatiche di guerra (Badge for War Efforts) and the Medal of Victory.

The Caprotti family and school: my grandfather Giuseppe Caprotti, known as Peppino Caprotti, student at the Institut Dr. Schmidt, St. Gallen, Switzerland, c. 1909.

Little Giuseppe Caprotti was sent to study at the very strict Swiss boarding school Institut Dr. Schmidt (today Institut auf dem Rosenberg) when he was 10 years old, in 1909; in this photo in typical costume he is the first on the right.

The Caprotti family: Bernardo known as Nardo in his youth, 1868-1928

After the Milan Riots of 1898, Bernardo Caprotti, as a member of the Republican Party, was forced to take refuge in Germany together with another Party member, his uncle-in-law Carlo (he had in fact married his daughter, cousin Bettina).

The Caprotti family: FAIDA

Great-grandfather Bernardo against his brother Emilio. The continuous alternation of love and hate, balance and rivalry. History is a teacher of life. And it repeats itself, because few learn. Fortunately, thanks to grandfather Peppino, the two brothers spent the Christmas holidays of the last years of their lives together. The feud was over, the two brothers had learned a positive lesson from their clashes.

The Caprotti family entrepreneurs: Emilio (1871-1963)

Bernardo’s younger brother Emilio shared a complex bond of balance and rivalry with him, both as a partner and competitor in various manufacturing ventures and as a brother. The outcome of this feud was inevitably the complete bankruptcy of the businesses they founded together, with particularly heavy consequences for Emilio.

The Caprotti family in the feminine: Elisabetta called Bettina (1873 – 1966)

Elisabetta, called Bettina, was Carlo Caprotti’s daughter. In 1893, at the age of 20, she married her cousin Bernardo, son of Giuseppe, her father’s older brother.

The Caprotti family: Carlo, entrepreneur and politician, 1845 – 1926

“Carlo (…) would combine his ambitions as a cotton entrepreneur with a strong political passion. (…) with the Third War of Independence of 1866 against Austria, he did not hesitate...

The Caprotti family and their roots: the family tree (18th century – today)

The family tree allows us to trace our origins, the links between the different generations. That of the Caprotti family is a journey through time that helps us enrich our understanding of the text and get to know the many protagonists of the book Le Ossa dei Caprotti.

Reviews about the book "Le ossa dei Caprotti"

People say about me Reviews 27/06/2026

Pino Coletti on Le Ossa dei Caprotti

Your book, Giuseppe Maria Giorgio Caprotti, is wonderful; it has really opened my eyes to the history of modern distribution. Thank you

Reviews 24/11/2025

My friend Maurizio Bettoni on Le Ossa dei Caprotti

Highly topical issues covered in a detailed, compelling and engaging manner. It could provide plenty of inspiration for the big…

People say about me Reviews 23/11/2025

Francesco Bordese, assistant detergent buyer, remembers me, talks about his time at Esselunga and tells me about Le Ossa dei Caprotti

I will always remember you. Those two years on your team gave me the strength to look to the future. I’ve just finished reading your book. It was very moving. Thank you for the professional training you gave me, and thank you for the new energy you’ve instilled in me after reading it.

People say about me Reviews 23/11/2025

Fabio Bellerè on me, on One More Time and on Le Ossa dei Caprotti

Dr Giuseppe (that’s what we always called him at the company) was, for us newcomers, a guiding light and a role model. I would like to highlight the professional, personal and moral depth of the man who embodied the future. A motivator, a natural mentor to whom, following the publication of his book, I feel even more attached

History of Esselunga History of Italy History of the Caprotti and Venosta families People say about me Press & Events Reviews 23/11/2025

“Le Ossa dei Caprotti”: the difference between journalistic reporting and history

In my view, the difference between journalism, political non-fiction and history lies in the research, which, in the case of history, is much more in-depth and is based, first and foremost, on the study of documents and archives. But the added value of this book also lies in the contributions from people who worked for or were close to Esselunga, a company with a much broader entrepreneurial spirit than one might think

Reviews 22/11/2025

Le Ossa dei Caprotti

"Le ossa dei Caprotti" (Caprotti’s bones)

Reviews about the book "Le ossa dei Caprotti"

Keywords

Characters

Follow me on my official social media