Luisa Spagnoli

Her son Mario also founded in the 1960s the gamepark the Città della Domenica, originally called Spagnolia. With his son Annibale, known as Lino (1927-1986), also president of Perugia Calcio, the production became more diversified and the network of Luisa Spagnoli outlet stores, now present all over the world, was born.

The documentary was directed by Aldo Zappala, in collaboration with Mario Leombruno, the Historical Museum of Perugia and the Luisa Spagnoli Exposition. The song Voglio vivere così was recorded in 1941 by Ferruccio Travaglini.

In 1907, together with Francesco Buitoni, she opened a small company in the historic center of Perugia, the Perugina, with fifteen employees.

With the outbreak of World War I, Luisa remained in the factory with her two sons, Mario and Aldo. After the war, the Perugina soon had more than one hundred employees. Then in the 1920s she invented the famous bonbon called Bacio Perugina.

Meanwhile, she also launched a new venture: the breeding of angora rabbits, which were not killed or even shorn, but lovingly combed to obtained the angora wool. In the suburb of Saint Lucia the Angora Spagnoli manufactured shawls, boleros and fashionable clothing.

Unfortunately, Luisa could not see the real take-off of the company in the 1940s under the guidance of her son Mario, since she died of throat cancer in Paris on September 21, 1935.

In years of great poverty, when many people suffered from hunger and cold, for Christmas the Spagnoli family gave to their workers wool sweaters and socks worth 4,000 lire, a fortune in those days. The establishment of Saint Lucia had a pool for employees, and townhouses (which still exist) were built for them, as well as nurseries for children, and dances, football games, competitions and parties were promoted.