Emanuele Filiberto Prince of Venice & Piedmont ¹⁶⁹⁹

   Another name for Emanuele is Emanuele Filiberto Umberto Reza Rene Maria de Savoie.

  General Notes:

Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice and Piedmont, a member of the House of Savoy, is the second-in-line to the abolished throne of Italy. Emanuele's paternal grandfather, Umberto II, was forced into exile by the new constitution of the Italian Republic. The Italian Senate lifted the ban against the family in 2002, so that male heirs were no longer forbidden to set foot on Italian soil. Prince Emanuele Filiberto is the heir-apparent to the Head of the House of Savoy.

Early Life & Family
Christened Emanuele Filiberto Umberto Reza Rene Maria de Savoie, he was born on June 22, 1972 in Geneva, Switzerland, the only child of Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, the pretender to the Italian throne, and his wife, the former Marina Doria, a Swiss ski champion.


The Prince of Venice married Clotilde Courau, a French actress and daughter of Jean Claude Courau and Catherine du Pontavice des Renardières, in Rome, Italy at the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, on 25 September 2003. The basilica was built on the ruins of the Diocletian baths, and is where Filiberto's great grandfather King Victor Emmanuel III married Helen of Montenegro in 1896. Prince Albert of Monaco, who introduced the couple three years ago, was the best man. Around 1,200 people are thought to have attended the wedding. The bride wore a Valentino dress, a veil held in place by a diamond tiara and gems belonging to the House of Savoy.

Both have stressed that they married for love. "Our love is strong, it will carry us far," Courau told reporters. She has said she will continue to work as an actress. "I will work under my name and I will be Clotilde of Savoy to advance humanitarian causes," she told the newspaper Corriere della Sera after their marriage. Clotilde Courau was born April 3, 1969 in Levallois-Perret, France.

The Prince and Princess of Venice have a daughter. Their daughter, Vittoria Cristina Adelaide Chiara Maria de Savoie, was born three months after their marriage, on 29 December 2003 in Geneve, Switzerland.

Involvement
Like his father, Emanuele Filiberto has no official Italian royal duties. However, he does hold certain roles in the activities of the Royal House of Savoy. He is Grand Chancellor of the Royal dynastic orders of Savoy, the Ordine Supremo dela SS. Annunziata (The Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation) and the Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro (The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus). Emanuele Filiberto has held this position since 2001, when he was appointed to it by his father.

He is also involved in charitable and cultural activities. In 2001, he founded the Prince of Venice Foundation to promote 'cultural diversity'. He is a licensed pilot for helicopters and planes and owns Ducati and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, an Aston Martin and an AC Cobra. Emanuele Filiberto has also published two books, including Sognando L'Italia (Dreaming of Italy), a memoir about growing up in exile. In these he recounts a fond dream of eating pizza in Naples, his family's homeland, which he has spent most of his life away form in exile.

On 10 November 2002, He accompanied his father and mother, following revocation of the provision in the Italian constitution that barred the male descendants of the House of Savoy from setting foot in the Italian Republic, re-entering Italy. On the three day trip, he accompanied his parents on a visit to the Vatican for a special (and controversial) 20-minute audience with Pope John Paul II, a meeting that he has expressed touched him deeply. Reports of Emanuele Filiberto's response to visiting his ancestral homeland, all state he was quite moved, and that he was overjoyed seeing Italy, a cherished place he had "only visited Italy via the television" and knew "it only through the stories my father has told me." He added that, "what we experienced was indescribable." He works in Geneva as a hedge fund manager. He was a former football commentator, and he has posed in commercials, such as those for gherkins.

Titles & Honours
Emanuele Filiberto is the Prince of Venice and Piedmont, and heir-apparent to the House of Savoy, the royal house of Italy in exile.

He holds the following honours:

> Ordine Supremo dela SS. Annunziata (The Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation)
> Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro (The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus) ¹⁶⁹⁹

Emanuele married Clotilde Courau on 25 Sep 2003 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.¹⁶⁹⁹ (Clotilde Courau was born on 3 Apr 1969 in Levallois-Perret, France ¹⁶⁹⁹.)