Lucio Tomalino, partisan and historic president of the Historical Institute of the Resistance of Asti, passed away at the age of 98 in his home in Chiavari.
We spoke about him and his story recently, at the end of February, when he celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary with his wife Amelia Casaloni, the very rare “diamond wedding”.
Tomalino, despite his recent move to Chiavari, was well known in Asti.
First of all, for his brilliant career as an oenologist serving numerous prestigious wineries and then, above all, for his very long presidency of Israt.
He was a protagonist of the Resistance, with the battle name “Vetta”, in the Langhe partisan division.
Born in Vernazza, in the splendid Cinque Terre, he has deep Asti roots thanks to his father, originally from Castello d’Annone. He attended the Enological School of Alba and linked his youth to that of a paternal uncle returning from the United States where he had worked as a set designer for Charlie Chaplin.
The call of the roots brought the uncle back to Castello d’Annone where he bought a farmhouse and began cultivating the land with the help of his nephew, Lucio, to whom he was very close.
Then the years of the Second World War and the Resistance which also had a courageous partisan relay in Amelia, a seamstress from Castello d’Annone.
After the war, Tomalino worked for many companies in Asti and also began a career as a winemaking consultant for wineries in South America, Russia and Poland, countries where intensive winemaking facilities had begun.
Always alongside his tireless commitment to maintaining the memory of the Resistance. Lucio Tomalino leaves his wife and two children: Enrico and Massimo, (the latter founder and president of the Magmax of Asti, the smallest mineralogy museum in the world) and a lively crowd of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The date of the funeral which will be held in Chiavari has not yet been established; the body will then be buried in the Castello d’Annone cemetery.
