Valerio Anzino’s burial location was an unsolved mystery for the website’s author for 2 years. While an obituary found in a London newspaper from 1899 stated that Valerio’s body was transported to the family vault in Mazzè Canevese, a visit to the cemetery in Mazzè in 2016 did not find the vault. In a visit to the State Archives in Roma in June 2018, the website author found an 1899 letter from Valerio’s sister, Giuseppina, in which she clearly states that she visits her brother’s grave almost every day in Mazzè. The author visited the Mazzè cemetery again in 2018 but still couldn’t identify a vault belonging to the Anzino family. Since the majority of Italian gravesites and burial markers are not purchased in perpetuity , (as in US), at some point in the 20th century, the Anzino Vault was likely repurposed to another family. The author will make a trip to Italy in 2020 and with the help of Iuri Silvestri, will try to gain access to the Commune of Mazzè’s burial records. It is highly likely that in addition to Valerio being buried in the Anzino vault in Mazzè, his mother, father, uncle Monsignor Giuseppe Anzino, and Valerio’s sister Giuseppina Anzino are also buried there.
The Anzino family had multiple connections to Mazzè. In addition to the burial vault at the cemetery, Giuseppina ran a school in Mazzè in the 1890s and 1900s. What has not been discovered yet is the original connection to the town of Mazzè that led to the original purchase of the burial vault, as this purchase likely happened in the 1860s, if not earlier.
The photo on this page is of one of 5 potential vaults in the Mazzè cemetery that may be the original Anzino vault.
