Mario Draghi, who he is: from the phone call to De Laurentiis to the love for Serenella (with whom he had two children)

He was governor of Bank of Italy and of ECB, he is considered the savior of the euro, and now he may be faced with the difficult task of trying to form a government. Of Mario Draghi studies and careers are known but some curiosities have escaped biographers and commentators. Here are some of them concerning his studies, the cities where he lived, the nicknames, family, friends and football passion of the man who received from Mattarella the task of forming a “high profile” government

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Childhood and studies in Rome

He has two younger brothers, the art historian Andreina, former director of the National Museum of Palazzo Venezia, and Marcello, an entrepreneur. He lost his parents when he was 15, and with an aunt he took care of raising the brothers. His father, Carlo, was a man of public offices: in the Bank of Italy, liquidator with Donato Menichella of the Discount Bank, in the BNL after the war. His mother, a pharmacist, was originally from Monteverde in the province of Avellino. Before graduating in Economics at Sapienza, Draghi studied under the Jesuits, at the Liceo Massimiliano Massimo in Rome, together with Gianni De Gennaro, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (before his parents sent him to the Morosini Naval School in Venice), Staffan de Mistura, Luigi Abete and Giancarlo Magalli. The latter tells who was with them and confirms that Draghi was among the brightest in the school. «Mario – he remembers – often passed his homework by bus“. Another classmate, who later became a goldsmith, Giuseppe Petochi confirms: «Mario was very good in Latin and mathematics, one of those who help you when you are in difficulty».

Draghi, Giancarlo Magalli: «How was it at school? Bravo, he didn’t tell the professors “

Sport and cheering

Paolo Vigevano, founder of Radio Radicale, classical high school license in 1966 (Draghi, instead, in 1965) recalls his formidable bond with Mario and reveals Mario’s passion for basketball. “One glue was the Institute’s basketball team. Mario, me and Giovanni De Gennaro, now chief of police, who was in class with me, played for it. Mario had a good shot, his model was Bill Bradley, great champion and then US senator ». But Mario Draghi is now also a great fan of Roma and a fan of football in general. He called Aurelio De Laurentiis after the sporting ruling that overturned Napoli’s defeat with Juventus, to congratulate him.

The University

Draghi graduated in Economics in 1970 at the Sapienza University of Rome, supervised by Federico Caffè, with a thesis on Economic integration and exchange rate variations in which he argued that, at the time (1970), the conditions for a project of a single European currency. In 1971 he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had as professor, among others, Stanley Fischer, future governor of the Bank of Israel. From 1975 to 1978 he was first appointed professor of Economic and Financial Policy at the University of Trento and then taught in Venice and Florence. In 2019 he was awarded an honorary degree in Economics by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

Piazza Affari continues after assignment to Draghi

The family

He studies and works in Boston, Washington, Florence, Trento, Padua, Venice, London, but it is in Rome that he always tries to return, to the house in the Parioli district that he shares with his wife Serenella (from an ancient Paduan family) and, up to a few year ago, with their children Giacomo and Federica. The first graduated from Bocconi and today works at the Morgan Stanley investment bank, the second has a degree in biology and heads a multinational company in the biotech sector. Since leaving the presidency of the ECB, his headquarters has been an office in the Bank of Italy headquarters, which he headed from 2005 to 2011. He spends a lot of time in his farmhouse in Città della Pieve in Umbria. The wife’s family has an estate on the Brenta, while together they also have a villa in Lavinio, on the Lazio coast.

The nicknames

His rigor, his authority, also recognized by the Germans, have created an ad hoc nickname, that of “Super Mario” (the plumber of the Nintendo video game known all over the world), this is because he saved the Eurozone, with the determination of “whatever it takes” (whatever the cost). But in the past there have been many nicknames with which he has been called: “the American” for his experience at MIT in Boston and at the World Bank in Washington; the “Mr. Elsewhere” for the ability to escape from meetings without anyone noticing; “The Athermic” for the habit of never wearing a coat (so much so that his father-in-law gave him one because he feared he didn’t have it).

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