To mark the centenary of the Titanic disaster, the city of Rome has erected a plaque with the names of two Italian waiters who died aboard the fated cruise ship on the 15 April 1912. The two young men, Roberto Urbini and Roberto Vioni, were hired in London to serve in the luxury A la Carte restaurant for first class passengers at the B bridge of the liner.
Urbini was 22 and, according to the newspaper reports of the time, his wife gave birth to their first child just three days after the tragedy, unaware that her husband had died. Vioni was 26 and unmarried. The bodies of the two men were never identified and were listed as missing.
Gian Paolo Pellizzano, an Italian journalist working in the Campidoglio City Hall press office, discovered the story of the two forgotten victims in the registry office archives and the authorities were able to trace present day family members, who were invited to participate in the unveiling ceremony at the Casa del Cinema in the Villa Borghese park.
