Isabela Mariotto is a famous Sicilian actress. She rose to stardom in the nineteen sixties as a stage actress, but her early years were spent with Italian military service during World War II. After the war she settled in Venice and worked in theater and also began a distinguished career in films. She achieved success as an actress in such notable works as “The Mysterious Lady”, “The Tenor Room”, “The Man With One Red Shoe” and “Aida”. Later in life she became a popular writer and wrote several books on art, life, philosophy and even religion. Her novels focused on topics related to marriage and spirituality and included subjects such as faith, love and relationships.
Isabela was married four times, first to Piero Francesco Grillo, who became a lord of the Italian duchy of Terni and subsequently appointed her to the governorship of Palermo. After their marriage she was often referred to as “the queen of the Sicilians” as she enjoyed great popularity in both political and social circles. After her marriage to Piero she moved to Milan and there she found great success as a performer, stage actress and singer. However, in 1966 she announced that she would not return to politics and that the public demands for change would force her into it.
Thereafter, she settled in Genoa, the largest city of the province of Veneto, which she governed successfully for the next fifteen years before retiring to live in Parma, a beautiful hill town in the province of Emilia Romagna. The reason for her retirement was personal. As she felt the need to move on from a public life and distance herself from politics and public attention, it became clear to her that being a recluse would be best for her. Inevitably, this decision was met with derision by all who knew her, but it was the best thing she could do for herself at the time. Having made the decision to live a simpler life, she seemed to have forgotten about any notions of return to public life. She retired to her garden to begin a serious and prolonged study of Italian literature.