Giuseppe Viti

Giuseppe Viti (1816-1860), one of the most important figures of 19th-century Volterra, was taken by his father to the United States when he was only eight years old, where, amidst a thousand vicissitudes, he learned the English language and, as he himself says in the autobiographical part that has remained with us, “to make an account”...

The American experience, however, proved to be a complete failure: dejected but not yet defeated, Viti returned to Volterra in April 1841, intending to leave for the Americas as soon as possible. After only six months, Giuseppe set out on his second trading voyage, this time to South America, where he managed to make a substantial profit and even open a temporary emporium in Rio de Janeiro. After returning home in 1845, he still felt unfulfilled, perhaps because his innate spirit of adventure still drove him to imagine new horizons.

Strengthened by the prestige now recognized in him by the entire city, Joseph managed to secure funding for a new venture, which would be his last but also his most successful: a trading voyage to Asia. Having left in 1846, after various vicissitudes he reached Lucknow, the capital of the Indian region of Oudh, where he met and befriended the local lord, Wajid Ali Shah. The Rajah took such a liking to Viti that, after buying all his alabasters, he appointed him his advisor and subsequently Emir of Nepal. Joseph, under pressure from the British consul and the Rajah's ministers, who were envious of the position he had achieved at court, by now extremely wealthy, decided to return home in 1848, also because, being a republican patriot, he did not want to miss "The Final Ball".

Having returned to Volterra in 1849, thanks to the large sums of money he had accumulated, he purchased the Palazzo from the Incontri family and remained in Volterra until the end of his life, where he saw his youthful dream of the Unification of Italy come true.