Pietro Tomasi Della Torretta

Who was Pietro Tomasi Della Torretta?

Pietro Paolo Tomasi, marchese Della Torretta was an Italian politician and diplomat, and a member of the noble family of the Princes of Lampedusa.

Born in Palermo, he earned a degree in jurisprudence, entering soon into a diplomatic career. From 1910-1914 he led the cabinet of Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonino Paternò-Castello di San Giuliano. Just after the latter's death, Della Torretta was sent to Munich as Italian plenipotentiary in the days preceding the outbreak of World War I. He was also in the Italian delegation at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

From 1921-1922 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Ivanhoe Bonomi, having been elected as Senator of the Kingdom in 1921. Later he was Italian ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Hostile to Fascism from the start of Benito Mussolini's government, he became President of the Italian Senate on July 20, 1944, after the Fascist regime collapsed.