"Italy's Grandmother" turns 111 in Abano Terme: Happy Birthday, Isabella Pelà!

When the supreme commander of the Italian army, General Armando Diaz, signed the Victory Bulletin that decreed the end of the First World War, Isabella Pelà was a 4-year-old girl.

Yesterday, Saturday, July 26, Isabella Pelà celebrated her 111th birthday at the Abano Terme hotel that at the time housed the Supreme Command of the Italian Army General Staff. It was inside the Grand Hotel Trieste & Victoria that, on November 4, 1918, General Armando Diaz signed the Victory Bulletin that ended the Great War. Her apartment is now one of the hotel's most enchanting suites, complete with the general's desk and original period mirror. It was Gabriele d'Annunzio, a frequent guest of the hotel, who proposed the name change, adding the word "Victoria" to the original Grand Hotel Trieste to celebrate the victorious outcome of the Great War.

On her birthday, Mrs. Pelà visited the famous Diaz Suite, the room that housed the Italian Army's Supreme Command during the final months of the war. She was welcomed by hotel director Manuel Calamani, who acted as her personal guide, showing her the rooms where General Diaz once resided. It was a shared emotion, a symbolic meeting of two lives spanning the twentieth century, in a space steeped in memory. After the tour, Mrs. Pelà was warmly welcomed to the Diaz restaurant at the Grand Hotel Trieste & Victoria for dinner with her nephew Alberto and a few guests invited for the occasion. Chef Silvano Lain curated a special menu to celebrate Mrs. Pelà's extraordinary achievement:

Pasta and beans, tagliatelle with ragù, risottos, and tiramisu.