Sandro Pertini

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Pertini, known as Sandro, was born in Stella (Savona) on 25 September 1896 into a wealthy family. Sandro Pertini was very close to his mother Maria Giovanna Adelaide Muzio, who was born in Savona on 20th December 1854 and died in Stella on 31st January 1945. He first studied at the Salesian ‘Don Bosco’ boarding school in Varazze, then at the ‘Gabriello Chiabrera’ grammar school in Savona, where his philosophy teacher was Adelchi Baratono, a reformist socialist and collaborator of Filippo Turati’s Social Criticism, who helped to bring him closer to the working-class movement in Liguria. Of Professor Baratono, Pertini retained a teaching to which he remained faithful: ‘If you never want to lose your way, always stand by the working class on sunny days and stormy days.’