Romano Prodi’s farewell to his wife Flavia: “I’ve never regretted having courted her so much”

That of Flavia Franzonifor more than fifty years married to Romano Prodi, it was a family and institutional funeral together. Above all, it was a funeral that told a love story. Prodi himself did so by speaking at the end of the function celebrated by Cardinal Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the CEI.

«I last saw Flavia smile on the path between Gubbio and Assisi, after two days of pure happiness, with the company of our dearest friends», said Prodi recalling the illness of his wife on Tuesday 13 June during a walk along the path of San Francesco.

The funeral in San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna the church attended by the family not far from home. «I apologize if so many have not been able to be with us here, but Flavia would have liked to have everyone here, only in her parish. The civil authorities have offered us more spacious alternatives but Flavia would have liked to come only here, where she has always stayed with me, Giorgio and Antonio, and her beloved grandchildren ».

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«We have always been together, in moments of joy and also in pain, in health and as the prayer says in all the hours of my life: in 54 years of marriage and the other years of courtship I have never regretted having insisted so muchbecause then we shared everything, from our presence in this much-loved city, to the choice of the IRI presidency to political life in Rome and Brussels».

«Don’t think that our life together was only made up of intellectual exchanges: we lived together in heaven and earth, even earth. With happiness among us, with friends and on holidays with the whole tribe. Precisely on the eve of leaving for Assisi, as we walked as always through the streets of Bologna, we wondered if we could possibly see Piazza Santo Stefano from heaven. I really think so.”

It was precisely the bond between Prodi and his wife that was mentioned by Zuppi «a bond where half of one and the other are confused, where each one, however, was precisely himself precisely because they were together. A bond where everyone becomes “beautiful” because they are full of love and which requires that trick, as he intelligently said in Romano, which is maintenance ». He also remembered it Pier Ferdinando Casini (“An extraordinary couple, who reconciles with everything that is marriage and love”) among the many present, in addition to the large Prodi family: the former premiers Mario Draghi, Mario Monti, Enrico Letta, the mayor of Bologna Matteo Lepore , the secretary of the Pd Elly Schlein, Francesco Profumo, Luigi Abete, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Walter Weltroni, Arturo Parisi, Piero Fassino and Pierluigi Bersani. And again Gianni Morandi, Don Luigi Ciotti, Samuele Bersani, Milena Gabanelli and Pif.