Zio di Roma

Background

A hired mourner who impersonates a distinguished ‘uncle from Rome’ at a funeral to raise the bereaved family’s standing.

Funerals in Naples were, and partly still are, a public show of a family’s standing. A large crowd, a plumed hearse drawn by black horses, notices posted on walls, and important mourners all counted. An “uncle from Rome” was the ideal guest: a relative with connections in the capital, the seat of ministries and of the Vatican, whose presence told the neighbourhood that the family was not to be trifled with.

The hired Zio di Roma is attested mainly through Lewis’s account of Lattarullo, so it may have been a small local trade rather than a widespread custom. It fits a well-documented Neapolitan world of hired extras for weddings, funerals and processions, alongside the prefiche and the pazzariello.

In Naples ’44

Lattarullo’s suspended sideline, resumed once Rome falls — complete with a rented car and driver and a special ‘Zio di Roma’ suit.

Appears in 1 diary entry.

October 15 1943
Introduction of Vincente Lattarullo, an eccentric, impoverished informant obsessed with justice and etiquette, who becomes a key civilian contact.
hired-mourner funeral custom — a well-dressed stranger poses as a dignified 'uncle from Rome' to add prestige to a family's funeral display
- Poverty & hunger
- Naples's character

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