Italy held funerals on Wednesday for the teenagers killed in the New Year’s Eve bar fire in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. The blaze killed 40 people and injured 119 at the ski resort. Six of the victims were Italian.
All schools across Italy observed a minute’s silence. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara joined pupils at Milan’s Orsoline di San Carlo school, attended by 16-year-old victim Achille Barosi. Funerals for Barosi and Chiara Costanzo, also 16, took place in Milan.
Services for Giovanni Tamburi and Riccardo Minghetti were held in Bologna and Rome. Valditara attended Costanzo’s funeral at Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Milan.
The family of Emanuele Galeppini, a promising Genoa golfer who was almost 17, asked for funeral details to remain private.
The funeral of Sofia Prosperi, an Italian-Swiss teenager, took place in her home town of Lugano.
Speaking at Bologna Cathedral, Giovanni Tamburi’s mother Carla Masiello described her son as always smiling. Many mourners at the service were young people.
“I have lost a piece of my life, but I must go on for my other children,” she said. “Now I focus on mourning him, trusting that justice will be done.” She added that the tragedy was especially frightening given Switzerland’s strict safety rules.
Senior officials attended Riccardo Minghetti’s funeral in Rome, including Mayor Roberto Gualtieri and ministers Orazio Schillaci and Andrea Abodi. During the service, a school friend remembered Minghetti’s kindness. She recalled how he once comforted her after a difficult day at school.
“He told me not to worry, that it was just a grade,” she said. “He was kind and affectionate.”
Riccardo’s father, Massimo Minghetti, recalled all 40 victims of the disaster. “Riccardo will always be present in our lives,” he said.
