Chiappino Vitelli

Giovan Luigi "Chiappino" Vitelli (1519 – July 1575) was an Italian nobleman and military leader who was Marquis of Cetona. He became a general and diplomat for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and stayed in the service of his son, Philip II of Spain, serving as Governor of Piombino and as Spanish ambassador to England. He was reputed to be one of the best Italian soldiers of his time, "the living embodiment... of the political and military success of ducal Florence".

Biography He was the son of Niccolò Vitelli, whom he avenged from his murder to along with his brother Paolo. As a youngster, he became a bodyguard, sparring partner and friend of the Duke of the Florentine Republic, Cosimo I de' Medici, who was close to him in age. He was nicknamed Chiappino ("Little Bear") for his large height and muscular build. today the Piazza Garibaldi, as well as the Palazzo Vitelli which can be seen today, holding a significant art collection. He used acquisitions from other places, such as a belltower from Montepescali, a town he had surrounded near Grosseto (1555).

Mediterranean theater and Eighty Years' War When Cosimo retired from governing duties in 1564, his succession by his son Francesco I made Vitelli an uncomfortable member of the old guard in Tuscany, leading him to join Philip II's armies full time. He had a personal role in the subsequent battle, where he directed the defense against Hangest's forces from a litter after being wounded in a leg by an arquebus shot.

By this point of his life, Vitelli had lost his athletic build and became famously obese, so much that he needed a special belt to be able to move around. He attempted to lose all the weight by drinking large quantities of vinegar, succeeding at the cost of his health going down and his body becoming flaccid. He died shortly after in the Netherlands in 1575.