Salvatore Rebecchini

Salvatore Rebecchini was born to influential Roman families. His father Gaetano (1855-1918) was a well-known engineer. Salvatore did his university studies at the School of Application of Engineers of Roma, obtaining a civil engineering degree in 1914. He began a successful career in engineering and was knighted in 1926. Rebecchini taught at the School of Aeronautical Engineering and the Faculty of Architecture and served as assistant director of the Institute of Technical Physics.

After World War II Italy established a republic and Rebecchini was elected mayor of Roma in December 1946, leading the Christian Democrat party, which began Christian Democrat hegemony in the Capitoline administration. He served as mayor from 1946-56 and it was in that position that he was chosen to light the Olympic Flame for the 1956 Olympic Winter Games at the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill.