The Bride Was White

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29763, 5 March 1962, Page 13

The Bride Was White

(N Z. Press Association—Copyripht)

PREDAPPIO (Italy), March 4. The bridegroom, 33-year-old Romano Mussolini, son of the Italian dictator, had to be given a stimulant at his wedding yesterday. The bride. Maria Scicolone. aged 24. sister of Sophia Loren, the film star, fainted. Sophia Loren herself took refuge in the kitchen of the parish house. One person was killed and at least a dozen injured in the confus’on at Mussolini’s native vilage of Predappio. British United Press reported Doctors gave the bridegroom a stimulant because he .-Imost fainted from emotion before the ceremony. But the trouble really began when the newly-weds tried to make their way to the basement of an adjourning parish house where the

wedding reception was to take place. The 2000 guests inside the church met head-on with about 4000 spectators outside, catching Romano Mussolini and his white-gowned bride in the middle. TTie couple were overrun on the stairway leading to the basement room. Maria fainted. Her husband. with police clearing the way, carried her in his arms to a small room where she quickly revived for champagne toasts. They were unable to reach the reception proper. Sophia Loren took refuge in the kitchen of the parish house She stayed there for almost 30 minutes before she was able to get a car and leave. As she left, her car was involved in a multiple traffic accident, in which an Italian motor-scooter rider died.