He was not at the funeral home at the Piccolo Teatro Grassi on via Rovello or at the cemetery. But he saw “his” Ornella soon after her death, on Saturday morning, at home on Via Vasto, with the artist’s family and his closest friends, such as Renato Zero. Giorgio Tocchi is perhaps Vanoni’s greatest love (together in the latest photo, ed.) as the singer admitted in an interview. Milanese, born in 1950, founder of the Italian clothing brand Johnny Lambs in 1978 – sporty style with a touch of chic, destined to please his friend Gianni Agnelli – Tocchi hated crowds and presence. “But I greeted her in my own way at her house: she was beautiful, calm, she had the usual ironic smile on her lips and she seemed to be sleeping – he explained to us when we contacted her by telephone at her showroom in via Simone Martini -. They told me that on Friday evening, after dinner, she got up from the table and, after sitting in an armchair, asked to eat ice cream. That’s how she died. After all, in 2019, when on the occasion of her birthday I asked her to express a wish, he had expressed it to me: I wanted to die at ninety. It had gone his way, he had predicted everything, he would have been happy about it.”
Tocchi recalls a carefree and happy life that we can only imagine, the photos that he always publishes on his Instagram profile speak a lot about this. “We traveled a lot together. We were friends of Bettino Craxi, and he, a socialist, made fun of me in a friendly way, claiming that I was shallow because I always voted for the right wing” he smiles.
Her last memories of the diva are sensational. “Ten days ago Ornella called me. You must do me a great favor, she said to me. And after a long and significant pause she admitted: “I want to eat tripe”. I told her that I would be happy to prepare it for her and then take it home. You know, it takes me several days to make tripe properly.
Then he went to Rome to record the Amici segment. On his return, when he was on the train, he called me and said: I’m too tired, let’s do it in a few days, sorry. I was supposed to see him this week…”.
