Clio Bittoni, 89 years old, was born on November 10, 1934 in Chiaravalle (Ancona), to parents who were political exiles during the fascist regime. She is a labor lawyer and married Giorgio Napolitano, who would later become the 11th President of the Italian Republic, in 1959 in Rome. They had two children, Giovanni, born in 1961, and Giulio, born in 1969. They also have two grandchildren, Sofia (born in 1997) and Simone (born in 1999), the children of Giovanni and Darlene Tymo.
Clio Bittoni attended a classical high school in Jesi and graduated in law from the University of Naples in 1958. She worked as a lawyer first in Rome and then in Naples, specializing in labor law and the application of the fair rent law in agriculture.
She met Napolitano in 1959 and they got married in Rome that same year. She continued her professional career at the Legislative Office of the Cooperative League. However, she resigned from her position after her husband was appointed President of the Chamber of Deputies, out of a sense of fairness.
“I could never have married a man who didn’t share my general beliefs,” she said in an interview for the book “Le mogli della Repubblica” (The Wives of the Republic) by Paola Severini. “I never had to fight to keep him, and where would he even go? I never thought that our union wouldn’t last. We always had a very intimate family life, for example, we always worked in the same room. He doesn’t mind if I talk on the phone while he’s writing.”
Giorgio Napolitano and Clio Bittoni had a strong and enduring relationship, and their shared values and close family bond were evident throughout their lives.