The Most Famous

CELEBRITIES from Italy

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This page contains a list of the greatest Italian Celebrities. The pantheon dataset contains 265 Celebrities, 6 of which were born in Italy. This makes Italy the birth place of the 11th most number of Celebrities behind Austria, and South Africa.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Italian Celebrities of all time. This list of famous Italian Celebrities is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Italian Celebrities.

Photo of Ötzi

1. Ötzi (3345 BC - 3255 BC)

With an HPI of 85.20, Ötzi is the most famous Italian Celebrity.  His biography has been translated into 67 different languages on wikipedia.

Ötzi, also called The Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Ötzi's remains were discovered on 19 September 1991, in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi", German: [œtsi]) at the Austria–Italy border. He is Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, offering an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans. Because of the presence of an arrowhead embedded in his left shoulder and various other wounds, researchers believe that Ötzi was killed by another person. The nature of his life and the circumstances of his death are the subject of much investigation and speculation. His remains and personal belongings are on exhibit at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.

Photo of Simonetta Vespucci

2. Simonetta Vespucci (1453 - 1476)

With an HPI of 75.76, Simonetta Vespucci is the 2nd most famous Italian Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Simonetta Vespucci (née Cattaneo; c. 1453 – 26 April 1476), nicknamed la bella Simonetta ("the fair Simonetta"), was an Italian noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence and the cousin-in-law of Amerigo Vespucci. She was known as the greatest beauty of her age in Italy, and was allegedly the model for many paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, and other Florentine painters. Some art historians have taken issue with these attributions, which the Victorian critic John Ruskin has been blamed for promulgating.

Photo of Rosalia Lombardo

3. Rosalia Lombardo (1918 - 1920)

With an HPI of 70.24, Rosalia Lombardo is the 3rd most famous Italian Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Rosalia Lombardo (13 December 1918 – 6 December 1920) was a Palermitan child who died of pneumonia, resulting from the Spanish flu, one week before her second birthday. Rosalia's father, Mario Lombardo, grieving her death, asked Alfredo Salafia, an embalmer, to preserve her remains. Sometimes called "Sleeping Beauty", hers was one of the last corpses to be admitted to the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo in Sicily.

Photo of Cecilia Gallerani

4. Cecilia Gallerani (1473 - 1536)

With an HPI of 65.57, Cecilia Gallerani is the 4th most famous Italian Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Cecilia Gallerani (Italian pronunciation: [tʃeˈtʃiːlja ɡalleˈraːni]; early 1473 – 1536) was the favourite and most celebrated of the many mistresses of Ludovico Sforza, known as Lodovico Il Moro, Duke of Milan. She is best known as the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's painting Lady with an Ermine (c. 1489). While posing for the painting, she invited Leonardo, who at the time was working as court artist for Sforza, to meetings at which Milanese intellectuals discussed philosophy and other subjects. Gallerani herself presided over these discussions.

Photo of Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione

5. Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (1837 - 1899)

With an HPI of 65.23, Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione is the 5th most famous Italian Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Virginia Oldoini Rapallini, Countess of Castiglione (23 March 1837 – 28 November 1899), better known as La Castiglione, was an Italian aristocrat who achieved notoriety as a mistress of Emperor Napoleon III of France. She was also a significant figure in the early history of photography.

Photo of Beatrice Borromeo

6. Beatrice Borromeo (b. 1985)

With an HPI of 49.53, Beatrice Borromeo is the 6th most famous Italian Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 14 different languages.

Beatrice Borromeo Arese Taverna (born 18 August 1985) is an Italian journalist and model. Born in Italy into an aristocratic family, she studied law at Bocconi University in 2010 before earning a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University in 2012. Borromeo subsequently worked for il Fatto Quotidiano before becoming a columnist for Newsweek and Daily Beast in 2013. She also worked as a broadcast journalist for Anno Zero on Rai 2 and hosted a weekly show on the Radio 105 Network. Borromeo married Pierre Casiraghi, in 2015; they have three children. She became an ambassador for the fashion brand Dior in 2021.

Photo of Roberto Bolle

7. Roberto Bolle (b. 1975)

With an HPI of 47.18, Roberto Bolle is the 7th most famous Italian Celebrity.  His biography has been translated into 14 different languages.

Roberto Bolle (born 26 March 1975) is an Italian danseur. He is a principal dancer étoile at La Scala Theatre Ballet. Bolle also dances regularly as a guest artist with the world’s leading companies, including The Royal Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.

Photo of Milena Miconi

8. Milena Miconi (b. 1971)

With an HPI of 47.15, Milena Miconi is the 8th most famous Italian Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Milena Miconi (born 15 December 1971) is an Italian actress and former model. She is an advocate for Parent Project', an organization for children suffering from muscular dystrophy.

Photo of Eluana Englaro

9. Eluana Englaro (1970 - 2009)

With an HPI of 46.45, Eluana Englaro is the 9th most famous Italian Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 14 different languages.

Eluana Englaro (25 November 1970 – 9 February 2009) was an Italian woman from Lecco who entered a persistent vegetative state on 18 January 1992, following a car accident, and subsequently became the focus of a court battle between supporters and opponents of euthanasia. Shortly after her accident, medical staff began providing nutrition to Englaro with a feeding tube, but her father "fought to have her feeding tube removed", saying it would be a dignified end to his daughter's life. He said that before the crash, his daughter visited a friend who was in a coma and told him she didn't want the same thing to happen to her if she were ever in the same state." The authorities refused his request, but the decision was reversed in 2009, and she died after her nutrition was withheld after she had spent seventeen years in the persistent vegetative state.

Photo of Allegra Versace

10. Allegra Versace (b. 1986)

With an HPI of 45.75, Allegra Versace is the 10th most famous Italian Celebrity.  Her biography has been translated into 14 different languages.

Allegra Versace Beck (Italian pronunciation: [alˈleːɡra verˈsaːtʃe ˈbɛk]; born 30 June 1986), commonly known as Allegra Versace, is an Italian-American heiress and socialite. Since 2011, Allegra has been a director of Gianni Versace S.p.A. and has worked in New York City as a theatrical dresser.

People

Pantheon has 10 people classified as Italian celebrities born between 3345 BC and 1986. Of these 10, 4 (40.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Italian celebrities include Beatrice Borromeo, Roberto Bolle, and Milena Miconi. The most famous deceased Italian celebrities include Ötzi, Simonetta Vespucci, and Rosalia Lombardo. As of April 2024, 4 new Italian celebrities have been added to Pantheon including Beatrice Borromeo, Roberto Bolle, and Eluana Englaro.

Living Italian Celebrities

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Deceased Italian Celebrities

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Newly Added Italian Celebrities (2025)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Celebrities were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Celebrities since 1700.