Natives •
Giotto Maraghini, Italian admiral (1882–1946). •
Giovanni Ermiglia, Italian
nonviolent activist. • The Italian actor and comedian
Carlo Dapporto was born in Sanremo and became a household name in post-war Italy. • Italian director and cinematographer
Mario Bava was born in Sanremo in 1914. • Italian
tennis player
Fabio Fognini was born in Sanremo. •
Alex Liddi, who was born in Sanremo, became the first native Italian to play
Major League Baseball, in 2011 with the
Seattle Mariners.
Died or are buried in San Remo • The Venerable Giorgio Baldassarre Oppezzi, a monk who died in 1525, and whose body, it is claimed, was later discovered to be
incorrupt, is buried here in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. •
Edward Lear, English artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsense poetry and limericks, lived and died in Sanremo. His tombstone is in the Foce Cemetery. •
Alfred Nobel bought a villa in Sanremo in 1891 and died there in 1896. Since 2002 it has housed a permanent exhibit on the most important discoveries of the 19th century including the research interests of Nobel himself. Sanremo continues to maintain its ties with Nobel, long after his death. Each 10 December (the date that Nobel died in 1896) large quantities of flowers sent by the province of Imperia, the city of Sanremo and the Board for Tourist Promotion of the Riviera dei fiori adorn the annual Nobel Prize Award Ceremony and Banquet in Stockholm. •
Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar,
Shah of Persia from 1907 to 1909, died in Sanremo on 5 April 1925. •
Mehmed VI, the last
Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire, died in Sanremo on 16 May 1926. •
Fausto Zonaro, the last Court Painter to the
Ottoman Empire, died in San Remo on 19 July 1929. He was buried with public honours in La Foce cemetery. On his gravestone, underneath an Ottoman
tughra, it states that Zonaro was the court painter of the Ottoman Empire. • Italian-born sculptor
Giuseppe Moretti lived in Sanremo in his final years and died here in February 1935. Moretti designed
the world's largest cast iron statue, of the Roman god
Vulcan (56 ft or 17 m), which stands atop Red Mountain in
Birmingham, Alabama (US). The statue is the symbol of the city. • Italian singer
Luigi Tenco died in Sanremo shortly after his performance at the 1967
Italian Song Festival. •
Edward James, British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement, died in Sanremo on 2 December 1984.
Temporary residents • The writer
Tobias Smollett stayed a few days in Sanremo in 1765 and described it thus: "St. Remo is a pretty considerable town, well-built upon the declivity of a gently rolling hill...There is very little plain ground in this neighbourhood; but the hills are covered with oranges, lemons, pomegranates and olives....The women of St. Remo are much more handsome and better tempered than those of Provence."
Travels Through France and Italy (1766). •
Empress Maria Alexandrovna, consort of
Alexander II of Russia, spent the winter of 1874 in Sanremo and as a gift to the city she donated the palms along the seaside walk of Corso Imperatrice (Empress Avenue). • Italian writer
Italo Calvino spent his youth in Sanremo and many of his novels, including
Il Barone Rampante, are reminiscent of his attachment to the city. • The Sicilian playwright and Nobel Prize winner
Luigi Pirandello lived in Sanremo in 1933–34 and was appointed artistic director of the Casino. ==Twin towns – sister cities==