Gigi Rizzi, the last summer and the answer that Brigitte Bardot never gave him

Brigitte Bardot died at the age of 91, on 28 December 2025 in her famous residence La Madrague, in Saint-Tropez. In 1968 the French actress had a flirtation with the Italian “playboy” Gigi Rizzi. We republish Teresa Ciabatti’s story about Rizzi and the group renamed “Les italiens”

«It was ’68, and I was playing it barefoot, dancing on the tables, imagining that tomorrow would never come» writes Gigi Rizzi. He writes it to Brigitte Bardot on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, when tomorrow has arrived for him and for her, the diva who made him famous.

Born in Piacenza, Rizzi comes from a family of industrialists. Three brothers, a father who died early, a beautiful mother, Pupa. A young governess who weans him (from the book I killed Gigi Rizzi: «I was fourteen years old, and among my schoolmates it had become almost a litany, the lament of the “closed houses” that had been “opened”; while I had my lover at home”). It is perhaps there, at fourteen, that he had the realization that youth, especially his youth as a good-looking boy, master of languages ​​(English and French), is a privilege. This is who Rizzi was before the summer of ’68.

Nicknamed The ItaliansGigi Rizzi, Beppe Piroddi, Franco Rapetti, Rodolfo Parisi and Gianfranco Piacentinitwenty-year-olds, tanned, conquer Saint Tropez. They are the first to think in terms of collective conquest, like this when Gigi gets engaged to Brigitte Bardotand together with his friends he enters the Mandrague, her villa, well what do they do. What is the first gesture made by these bold, carefree young people? Plant a flag of Italy on the roof of the villa. A flag that is visible from the beach, from the sea, from far, far away – everyone must know that the Italians have arrived. During his stay at BB, Gigi goes out onto the terrace and scans the horizon with the illusion of being watched by a crowd, an immense audience applauding him. A stage sensation that seems to him to be a prefiguration of the future: it will all be like this, a triumph. What could ever change? It’s just the beginning.

While in the rest of the world the kids contest power and dominant ideologies, the political ’68, he and his friends create another ’68 – they claim years later -, theirs is a sentimental revolt, and no, it is not true that when their peers fought, they simply water skied. If the invention of another ’68 seems like an idiocy at the time, over the years, in the reiteration of increasingly distant memories, that revolution – in truth accidental – is moving. But this will happen much later. For now let’s stick to the summer of ’68: Rizzi claims that his love affair with BB lasted ninety days, the best ninety days of his life. Some argue instead that the story lasted a few days, and that the Italian for BB was just one of many. Here, however, we stick to Rizzi’s version. To the feelings and nostalgia of our protagonist who in the 2013 letter writes: «You were not that despotic character described by the newspapers. You were fragile, melancholic, intelligent, sensitive.”

So the summer ends, so does the love story. Sometimes Rizzi says it ended out of jealousy, sometimes due to distance issues. Not out of passion – this remains unchanged in the versions – he and BB break up with the passion still alive. Meanwhile to the original group of The Italians new playboys like Paolo Vassallo are added together with whom Rizzi (already owner of Number One in Milan) opens the Roman Number One, officially a vegetarian restaurant, in reality a nightclub, meeting place for international actors and stars. Elite of rich, famous and beautiful young people. So the season of fun, of photos in newspapers, of women (for Gigi Rizzi Veruska, Cinthia Lennon, etc.) continues. «We went to the Casino ready to go home by train if the last bet went bad. It never happened. We won, and then off we went to enjoy life” says Rizzi of those years.

A dizzying ascent that is a precipice. In 1971 the police found a large quantity of cocaine in the bathrooms of Number One. «The investigation revealed that the scandal was largely the revenge of a former friend of Vassallo, the film producer Pierluigi Torri. Ex for women’s issues. But there was more – Alberto Piccinini reconstructs the story decades later (2010). The Manifesto in 2010 —. Witnesses mysteriously killed in Brazil. Models grabbed by the hair after a suicide attempt in prison.” And again: «On an incredible morning at the Palace of Justice (…) playboys, actresses and models paraded. Furs and maxi coats. In a nearby courtroom, the Valpreda trial” (Pietro Valpreda tried for the Piazza Fontana massacre). Gigi Rizzi is not under investigation, but as a protagonist of that world and a cocaine user (by his own admission) he understands that it’s over. More: he wants to save himself. He moves to Argentinabuy land and animals, start a farm. He marries Dolores with whom he has three children: Cristina, Amedeo and Bernardo. Except — as he states in his book. Saved from drugs and depression.

A shadow, that of depression, that hovers over everyone The Italians(Franco Rapetti commits suicide by jumping from the eleventh floor of a skyscraper in New York, Rodolfo Parisi dies young in a way so stupid that it doesn’t seem possible, or in any case not worthy of him: hit on the head by the deflector of a bus mirror while stepping off the sidewalk in London). That the common evil is getting old, fading, losing meaning, getting smaller. In 2004 Rizzi took part in the reality show The Farm where he stands out for kindness. Donatella Rettore, a competitor, says of him: «Gigi is just a poor old man». Eliminated in the first episode, Rizzi returns to the game thanks to the disqualification of Roberto Da Crema due to blasphemy. Once the reality show is over, Gigi has nice words for her teammates. Of the dancer Milton Morales he says: «We became friends, he reacts a little exaggerated, but he protected me a lot».

Invited on TV, he talks about Milton, Floriana Secondi, and again, with every interview, every participation and guest appearance, about Brigitte Bardot. From show to show he repeats the story of the summer of ’68, bare feet, water skiing. Italian flag. Meanwhile, his website appears on the web: www.girizzi.com where next to the gallery, the photographic material of the time, stands out the definition of himself, or how Gigi Rizzi presents himself to the new generations: «A man who loved the most beautiful women in the world». It is perhaps from here on that The Italians they become something else. Statements and memories are repeated. At a certain point the obituaries: «The last playboy dies», «With him goes the Dolce Vita»: and they could be all of them. Dazzled by the possibility of a new successful season, Rizzi returns to live in Italy, in Sori (Genoa). And it is from Sori’s house that he writes the letter to BB published in il Corriere della Sera: «I still feel the drift of that summer together today» – he writes. Melancholy, tender, the letter however has a surprise ending: «I too love animals and appreciate your ecological battles. But I never shared what you thought then: animals don’t cheat, men do. Despite everything, I believe in human beings” Rizzi reproaches Bardot. To conclude with a bitter: «Hold on, Brigitte, but try not to see only enemies around you».

Words explained only after Rizzi’s death, a Life live from Beppe Piroddi or Danilo Endrici (in any case from a close friend): Gigi had tried to contact BB several times. Finally reached by a mutual acquaintance, informed that Gigi wanted to see her again, BB says no. Born in Piacenza on 23 June 1944, Gigi Rizzi died in Saint Tropez on 23 June 2013. And no, that June 23rd is not a mistake. He was born and died on the same day. In between 69 years, like 43 between the summer of ’68 and his death. But in this story, in the existence of playboys, days are worth it. One day it reverberates, it lengthens – that’s the meaning, over there. Exactly like the flag that according to Rizzi waved for an entire summer, and for others just one day, so much so that there are no direct witnesses, from the beach, from the sea.

December 28, 2025 (changed December 28, 2025 | 2:48 pm)

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