Despite the humble upbringing – the son of a metalworker – they all came to him. The film stars, the big-name movie directors, the industry moguls, the footballers, World Champion racing drivers; the rich and the famous. Even the Pope visited Maranello shortly before he died. (He was too ill to meet the pontiff in person, so they spoke by phone.)
In fact, ‘Pope of the North’ was one of his many nicknames. After all, apart from the Pope, he was surely the most famous person in Italy, and the most popular.
He had many other nicknames, most notably ‘Il Commendatore’, which he disliked. It had World War Two Fascist overtones. He far preferred ‘L’ingegnere’, although he wasn’t a qualified engineer.
