Giacomo Matteotti

Giacomo Matteotti was born to Girolamo and Elisabetta Garzarolo on May 22, 1885, in the town of Fratta Polesine in northeast Italy. His father, originally from Trentino, had settled in Fratta when he was 20 years old. He opened a store and made a discreet fortune which he then invested in the purchase of farmland. When Girolamo died, his wife Elisabetta, an energetic and shrewd woman, took over the reins of the family’s various commercial activities and succeeded in appreciating the family assets considerably. At the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, the Matteotti’s were one of the few wealthy families in Polesine.