Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, son of Italy's last king, Umberto II, died in Geneva on the morning of 3 February at the age of 86. The burial will be held on Saturday, February 10 in Turin's cathedral, and he will be buried in a highly private ceremony in the royal tomb of the Basilica of Superga. His life crossed, albeit from afar, Italian history: on September 8, 1943, at the age of six, he left Rome with his mother Maria José, and, following the 1946 referendum that sanctioned the Republic's victory, he lived in exile until March 2003, when the XIII provision of the Italian Constitution, which prohibited the return of male descendants of the royal family to Italy, was repealed. He chose Naples, his birthplace, as his first stop on his return, having not visited Italy in 57 years. In the summer of 1978, the incident that shaped his entire life occurred: a shot fired from his weapon after a violent argument with yacht neighbors on horseback in Corsica, which killed German student Dirk Hamer. The 19-year-old's family therefore launched a lengthy legal battle, but at the end of 1991, Vittorio Emanuele was cleared of willful homicide by French judges, with a complete formula. As a result, he was a contentious character who has lived through over a century of history, including exile, the dream of homecoming, legal difficulties, inconsistencies, and worldliness.
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