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THE ITALIAN WAY This page: Giovanni “Gianni” Agnelli was the principal shareholder of Fiat.
GIANNI AGNELLI has been dead for 13 years but still his name resonates when people discuss Italy, style, or the Fiat automobile company. Gianni was the founder’s grandson, and became Fiat’s president sometime during the Sixties. Throughout his life—one I was privileged to observe 46 QUEST
in my youth—Gianni fought with all the powers he controlled in the media to combat his reputation of being a playboy. An extremely handsome man who dressed impeccably and had great style, Gianni nevertheless could not resist the pleasures of women and cocaine, in that order. A
great seducer of women, he nevertheless tried desperately to go straight, whatever that means, once he turned 60, becoming a senator for life, hobnobbing with Henry Kissinger and various European heads of state, but still the rumors persisted. The Agnelli family was by far the most pow-