One of the mountain peaks in Uganda is named after Prince Luigi Amedeo.
Prince Luigi Amedeo,Duke of Abruzza, died in Africa on this day in 1933. He was the crown prince of two countries – Italy and Spain. Namely, he was a member of the Italian Savoy dynasty, the grandson of Italian king Emmanuel II, but also the son of Spanish king Amedeo of Savoy (Amadeo I).
Luigi received the title of Duke of Abruzza (named after a region in central Italy) in his youth. He travelled a lot, and his destinations included North America and Africa. He began practicing alpinism and climbed a series of mountains, including many in the Alps and Mount Saint Elias in Alaska (5489 m).
In 1889 Luigi Amedeo organized an expedition to the North Pole. He managed to reach Francis Joseph’s Land, where he lost two fingers to frostbite and was forced to abandon the expedition. In 1906, he went on to climb a series of mountains in Uganda, and one of the peaks there was even named after him.
Luigi Amedeo’s most famous climb was to K2 near Karakorum (almost 6700 m). During World War I, Amedeo held the rank of admiral and served as the commander of the Italian fleet in the Adriatic. Towards the end of his life he moved to Italian Somaliland, where he allegedly married a local woman, Faduma Ali. He died in what is now Somalia, aged 60.
