I met the Countess Visconti di Modrone during a trip with friends....to visit her horse-training farm and facilities in Gay, Georgia, where she and her husband had moved..from Italy.......I had three motivations to visit the 'farm'....1) an acquaintance...Ursula Cox, then teaching dressage to young Atlanta Debutantes, hoping to elevate their status in Atlanta Society, was good friends with Maria, floor manager of my Buckhead Atlanta Antique Jewelry Store. Ursula was champing at the bit to meet "The Countess"...and I went along with them to 'watch the Show' and meet some cute canines....... 2) The Countess wore Bulgari jewels...an incentive for me to acquire a new, extravagant 'jewelry collector'.....since I had a few pricey Bulgari 'pieces' as well as a couple of "Marina B" jewels to sell; and 3) I had long been a fan of the gay Italian director, Lucino Visconti's Films....and Countess was related, by marriage, to him.........Also, I was curious about her son, Giovanni Albert Agnelli, by her first husband, Umberto Agnelli, via. my limited knowledge and interest in Italian Cars.........Incidentally, both The Countess and Giovanni died shortly after I met them....in the late 1990's.....The erudite and sophisticated Countess came to Buckhead to purchase the Bulgari Jewels, shortly before her demise in NYC, in 1999.
Antonella Agnelli (born Donna Antonella Bechi Piaggio) in The Palazzo Doria, the Brazilian Embassy in Rome, wearing a Mila Schon silk and diamond trimmed evening gown. Photo by Henry Clarke for Vogue, September 1968
