“The President is coming!”
“Oh. How interesting.”
To be fair, I was clearly told that the President was coming to the conference. I assumed this meant the president of the university, or the president of some large company.
I finally understood that my colleagues were trying to tell me the President of Italy was coming when these dudes showed up:
This is not my photo, because I had NO IDEA that there was going to be a soldier fashion show at an economics conference.
“What the.. what? Who are those guys? What are those helmets? Why do they have swords?”
“Ah, those are the corazzieri, the official guards of the President” my Italian friend told me. “They are very tall.”
Giorgio Napolitino, the President of the Italian Republic, can only be protected by soldiers who meet a certain height requirement. Those under 190 cm need not apply for the horse hair helmet.
“It is a rule you must be tall,” my colleague emphasized.
“Huh. We just have the Secret Service in my country.”
Always with pomp and ceremony in Italia, love it 🙂
I went into the President’s Quirinale Palace once (it’s open to the public some Sundays–not sure of the schedule) and I was blown away by these giants. Who knew they grew Italians that tall?
I had lived here for almost 5 year before I realized that Italy had a president AND a prime minister! Who knew? Love your sense of humor, I am also a transplanted Californian living in Florence. I am going to ad you to my blog roll. Ciao-Sara
Oh my.,. How could you not know?
I was 25. It was my first time outside of the US for more than a week at a time. I had noooooo idea.
How can I reach the members of the carabinieri? Email possibly? I’m just looking to send email or something of the like to ask some follow-up questions about the formation & the training of the Carrabinarri Group. Thank You in advance for your time & attention. Monica Rome
Did you ever get an answer to your question? The Reggimento Corazzieri are the President’s guards but they came into being in the 1300s. They are an elite and specialized unit of the Carabinieri, in modern times , but going back in history, they were the King’s honor guards and served the King until Italy became a republic in 1947. After which they became the President’s guards. While Italy was a monarchy, there was also a prime minister. As a republic, there is still a prime minister and a president. The Corazzieri must be a minimum of 6ft 2in in height of 191 cm and their horses are a pure blood Irish breed. There is so much more and you can find more information and videos on YouTube.