BIOGRAPHY

Renata Bianchi was born in Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, on 16 October 1906. She was born into a large family to a sharecropper father and a farm housewife mother. The Bianchi family had 13 children, though six of them died at a young age. Her father, Luigi, was a literate sharecropper who, thanks to his studies in Rome, became a steam boiler operator. He was later hired at the Cesena Sugar Factory, where he eventually rose to the position of Machine Head.

In 1921, at the age of 15, Renata began working at Fornace Marzocchi in Vigne. The physically demanding labor took a toll on her—her arms stretched from carrying heavy packs of bricks. Due to her small stature, just 1.5 meters tall, she struggled to push the large wheelbarrows provided.

In 1929, she became lost in a snowstorm. After spending an entire night crouched under a tree, she was found—cold but unharmed. That same year, she met her future husband, Umberto Pirini, a worker at Arrigoni, later known as CIA (Consorzio Industrie Agrarie).

In November 1930, she married Umberto. Ezio was born from their marriage and passed away in 1994, along with two other children who died at a very young age: Giampiero at 18 months in 1936 and Ivo at just 15 days in 1938.

During the Second World War, her husband, Umberto, supported the partisans by secretly supplying them with food as they carried out their resistance in the hills of Cesena. One night, following a tip-off, he was arrested by the fascists and imprisoned in the Rocca Malatestiana, where he remained for nearly a year. The suffering he endured left lasting scars, and he never fully recovered. In the early 1960s, he succumbed to lung disease. Shortly after the war ended, Renata began working for the Fabbri-Allocatelli family in the castle of Sorrivoli. Despite her humble profession, she ensured her son received a good education, and he went on to become a manager at a major oil company in Milan.

Even at the age of 111, she maintained a structured routine—going to bed at 10 PM, waking up at 6 AM, having breakfast, and then tending to the housework.

Renata Bianchi passed away in Cesena, on 4 October 2019, at the age of 112 years, 353 days.

RECOGNITION

Bianchi’s age was verified by Paolo Scarabaggio and Alessandro Delucchi, and was validated by the ESO on 15 January 2020.

ATTRIBUTION

* “Cesena, Renata, 111 anni senza sforzo” – Il Resto del Carlino, 16 October 2017

* “Renata Bianchi, la Cesenate che sfida il tempo” – Cesena di una volta, 15 October 2018

* “Renata è morta, era tra le persone più anziane del mondo: avrebbe compiuto 113 anni tra pochi giorni” – Cesena Today, 5 October 2019

GALLERY