Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta engaged to Princess Olga of Greece, May 2005

[Aneca]

So does anyone know how long they have been dating? Last time I heard Princess Olga was going out with some playboy...

 

[Isabel]

Maybe they are still hopeful and that's the reason for a royal match

I don't think so. The members of these family don't appear to be delusional. I think that the royal match is based on the fact that these two people most likely follow the same circles thus kept running to each other. If that is the case chances are that they have known each other for years.

 

[Reina]

DId her family lead a more private life, unlike the ex-king constantine and his family. IF so I can see teh difference.

 

[julial]

they look like such ahappy couple, very comfortable to be together. Good for them.

 

[Meg]

I read that Olga has a degree in History from Princeton University and a Architecture superior course from Columbia University. However she has worked as an entomologist in Panama´s jungles for the Smithsonian Institute of Washington, her studies and her work doesn´t seem have much in common.

 

[EmpressRouge]

I was flipping thru my older issues of Vanity Fair, and I saw that Princess Olga had made their 2004 Best-Dressed List. The list was started in the 40s by Eleanor Lambert, and since 2004, Vanity Fair became in charge of it. Her profile from the list:
H.R.H Princess Olga of Greece
Residence: "Undetermined, possible Cairo."
Occupation: Chief Lepidopterist at the Liquid Jungle Lab, Panama
Favorite Designers: Valentino, Prada
Fashion icons: Jean Pigozzi
Favorite Piece of Clothing: Anderson & Sheppard tweed jacket
Greatest handbag of all time: Yellow canvas British Army haversck.
Diamonds or pearls: Giant pearls
Favorite Piece of Jewelry: Mogul archer's ring given to her by her father, Prince Michael of Greece
Favorite shoes: "I only wear Louboutins. The higher the heel, the more feathers and colors, the more 'Louboutinized,' the better.
Harrods or Harvey Nics: Selfridges - "It has the best underwear department of any store."
Favorite causes: The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International.

Queen Rania and her cousin Prince Pavlos also made the list that year.

 

[Hannelore]

OLGA OF GREECE AND AIMONE DE SAVOIE : THE FIRE OF LOVE

They're young, they're attractive, they're princes and they love each other. Olga of Greece and Aimone of Savoie-Aoste have been living a beautiful love story for months now. Greek and Italian royalists get exited about the thought of the two of them getting married. So it goes to show...princes don't only fall for Cinderella.

Olga of Greece, Aimone de Savoie ! The son of the duke d'Aosta and the second daughter of prince Michel of Greece are always together. In Moscow, where the young prince is director of the Russian branch of the Italian firm Pirelli, they've often been seen together - strolling through town like any couple in love. Late November (2004) they went together to the big reception given by the daughter of princess Pallavicini in her sumptuous palace in Rome. The first rumours started to circulate and since then the couple has tried to continue their love story outside of the spotlight. They gave their close friends the strict order to keep the press at distance.

Their idyl makes the Italian and Greek monarchist movements happy. It's true that their combined genealogical tree would make many old aristocratic families jealous. Italy, Greece, France, during 200 years these three lineages keep coming back with marriages in the royal houses of Spain, Denmark, Russia and England. Aimone and Olga are various times cousins. Their closest family tie is the one that comes from the Orléans branche : Olga's paternal grandmother (princess Françoise of France) was the sister of Aimone's maternal grandfather (the late count of Paris - head of the royal family of France).

When looking at the huge list of glorious ancestors, this young couple has a rather original personality: they both decided not to let their family history choke them.

Olga was born in Athens on November 17th, 1971. She spent part of her childhood in the Greek capital, then went to live with her parents in France and later in the US. She spent most of her adlescence in New York. As an architecture student at Columbia University she had a taste for provocation. When she obtained her degree, she started to work in interior decoration. Her first jobs were two boutiques in London and New York of the famous shoedesigner, Christian Louboutin. Apparently he was very happy with the result because he asked her to decorate his house in Luxor (Egypt) as well.
At that time Olga's other passion was photography. Between two decoration jobs, she would wander around the world, camera at hand. Untill the day her equipment got stolen...

As for the matters of the heart, she's non-conformist and dated a Greek journalist a lot older than her for more than a year. The relationship ended when she met a young French businessman, Johnny Pigozzi. He made her discover the enchanting world of butterflies. A hobby that soon became a passion. The two of them start a crazy project : the creation of a laboratorium for the study of butterflies in the jungle of Panama. Between two trips in Central America, where they stay in the winter months, they spend their time in the South of France or in Paris.
Sexy, unpredictable and full of surprises, Olga doesn't mind going to a mundain vernissage from time to time or to assist at the weddings of her royal cousins. She makes a habit of chosing her outfits at the very last moment - original but always elegant. At the wedding of her cousin Pavlos of Greece in London in 1995 she wore a cream coloured silk dress, with black polka dots, a long string of pearls and a large dark brimmed hat with a voilette. Three years later, in Venice, at the wedding of her sister Alexandra, she wore a raspberry ensemble, a few flowers in her chignon, and a large diamond and ruby lily-shaped necklace.

 

[Hannelore]

the rest of the article...

Aimone is certainly more discrete than his girlfriend. He was titled "duke of Pouilles" at birth (1967). He's the son of the fifth duke of Aosta and of princess Claude of France, the fifth daughter of the count and countess of Paris. His father is the head of the junior branch of the royal family of Italy.
After his studies at the naval college of Venice and the university of Milan, he started working in a bank. His mother tells : "One day he announced us he was leaving for Moscow. He had been offered to start up a Russian branch of Pirelli. He told me: "In Italy I'll always be my father's son or my mother's son. I want to prove myself in a country where people don't know my name" I admire him for that. He managed to build up a successful business in a difficult city."

Maybe it was Russia that brought Olga and Aimone (who've known each other since they were children) together. They both descend from the Romanovs and they both love this country where a tough everyday life goes together with irrational and romantic influences. If, as we hope, there will be an engagement, then the gotha will celebrate a great wedding in 2005. Apart from the (rather late) marriage of Michel de Bourbon-Parma and Maria-Pia of Savoie last year, we have to go back to 1999 to find the last mariage between two royal houses : Caroline of Monaco and Ernst-August of Hannover.

It would be -once again- a eucumenic union. Princess Olga is orthodox and prince Aimone catholic. The Italian royalists dream of a grand wedding at the Pantheon in Rome, where the kings of Italy rest. Or the wedding could take place in Pavlovsk, at 26 km of St Petersburg, at the palace of grand duke Constantin, where their mutual greatgrandmother, grand duchess Olga of Russia, first queen of Greece spent her childhood. It would be the first royal wedding in Russia in 100 years. This unexpected love story moves many hearts...

Written by : Philippe Delorme and Vincent Meylan

 

[Hannelore]

More pics of prince Aimone

 

[Hannelore]

more pics of princess Olga

 

[Alisa]

Thank you Hannelore. The Princess looks absolutely beautiful in that first picture.

 

[Scott]

The facial hair on the groom....its different for this day & age. He kinda looks like he stepped out of a time capsule (sp?) with it. I'm not saying its bad or anything....but different.

Hi Lady Jennifer

My thoughts exactly - The couple reminded meof the last Tsar and Tsarina.

Scott

 

[Hannelore]

Another article from Point de Vue (18 May 2005)

Olga of Greece and Aimone di Savoia



THEY'RE GETTING MARRIED !



Point de Vue brought the scoop last December. Now it's official : Olga of Greece and Aimone di Savoia are engaged. Wedding in autumn.



The duke of Aosta, Aimone's father, announced it on the Savoia-Aosta family's website : Olga of Greece and Aimone of Savoia got engaged on May 7th, 2005 in Torino. The wedding will take place in autumn, a date isn't fixed yet. The same goes for the place : Maybe Torino or Bari, the capital of Puglia (Aimone's title is duke of Puglia), or maybe Firenze, the city where a large part of the family comes from.

But that's not the most important thing. The happy news causes a lot of joy for Italian and Greek monarchists, who congratulate each other. When two major royal houses celebrate a wedding between them, many hearts beat faster. Recently the gotha had to get used to marriages where a commoner played the role of Cinderella. The union of Olga of Greece, 33 years old, and Aimone di Savoia, 38 years old, marks the comeback of high level dynastic marriages.

Olga and Aimone have known each other since they were children. Olga's father, prince Michel of Greece, is a first cousin to Aimone's mother, princess Claude of France. And Michel of Greece is also a first cousin to princess Irene of Greece, Aimone's paternal grandmother.

"I'm overjoyed", prince Aimone keeps on repeating - with a smile in his voice- "I adore Olga. She's an intelligent woman who speaks five languages, she studied architecture and on top of that she's gorgeous." And he adds : "She also happens to be the daughter of Michel of Greece, whom I admire a lot."

Their romance started last year. Amedeo di Aosta (Aimone's father) remembers : " At the wedding of Felipe and Letizia, I was sitting next to Marina of Greece, Olga's mother, and we saw our children walking by together. I said to myself "Why not ?" and a joked about it with Marina, but I never thought it would become reality."

The families of the two young people are over the moon. Just as the close friends they've always been, the two fathers invited the close family, about 15 people, to a fashionable club in Torino, "the Whistt" to celebrate their children's engagement. The duke tells : "I had ordered two big bouquets of flowers : one with blue and white flowers, the colours of Greece, and the other with with red and white ones, the colours of the Savoia-Aosta family."

Wearing a white Prada dress, the beautiful fiancée showed her engagement ring, that once belonged to Aimone's grandmother, princess Irene of Greece : a combination of emeralds and diamonds.

Despite their family ties, Aimone and Olga never seemed destined for each other. Both in their own way atypical - big discretion for Aimone, volcanic temperament for Olga - they both have always made it clear they lived by their own standards. They've never been interested in being like everybody else. Above all, they've got their taste for liberty and independence in common.

With his blond goatee and his hair combed back like a XIXth century dandy, Aimone is "the most Orléans of my three children" states his mother, Claude de France. Physically he's an exact copy the duke of Aumale, but his blue-green eyes and his tall, slim profile give him a Slavic air. Being a descendant of the Romanovs through his great-grandmother, queen Olga of Greece, Aimone cultivates the resemblance to his forefathers Paul I and Nicholas I.

For over 10 years he's been living in Moscow (he's got a beautiful apartment in Moscow and a datcha in the country), where he opened and directs the Russian branch of Pirelli (energy cables, telecommunication, and tyres) "I'm very proud of him", his mother says, "he managed to build up a career in Russia without any help from his name, title or relationships". An achievement that's also praised by his father: "He talks perfect Russian. Sometimes I'm even worried he'll stay there forever" he jokes. "I hope that one day they'll come back to live in Italy". A wish that will certainly please Olga. When she was 19 she told in an interview to Point de Vue that she was studying Italian and loved Italy : "It's a sublime country, I would love to work there."

As a graduate from Princeton and Columbia, the princess of Greece first worked as an interior designer before yielding to a passion for butterflies. She left for the jungles of Panama to photograph and study phalenas. She works closely together with researchers of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to set up a "liquid laboratory of the jungle" on a large island before the coast of Panama.

From Moscow to New York, from Torino to Paris, stopping in Athens and the isle of Patmos now and then, these two great travellers finally found each other. Up to now they both considered liberty to be their greatest treasure. Today they decide to sacrifice it...on the altar of love.

Written by : Nathalie Six

 

[Hannelore]

two more photos of the princess:

 

[Hannelore]

The wedding will take place on October 1st, 2005.

 

[Larzen]

Hannelore it is very kind of you to take the time to translate theese articles, thank you very much A great match. Princess Olga is a very beautiful woman, I wonder what kind of wedding dress she will choose, I cant quite see her going for the traditional "princess dress"

 

[cuervo]

A Beautifull, prosperous,full of children and happiness, life I wish for the Princeses!!

 

[carlota]

thanks hannelore for all the info!!

i really can't wait to this wedding! i think we need one of these marriages of royalty and royalty after so many commoner-royal weddings...

any ideas about the guests? all the european gotha will probably be there can't wait!

do you think valentino will design her wedding dress? she said he was one of her favourite designers as some poster said before and he has made many dresses for royals, including maxima's lovely wedding dress... (and also her far in law marie chantal seems to be a very good friend of him and wears lots of his dresses)

 

[Cathérine Bergeyck]

They will get married on Patmos, one of the Greek isles.

 

[Marengo]

Great, I was already worrying that they did not give a date. His cousin Jean of France & Dss Tatiana of Oldenburg took there time for this as well, and we all know how that ended. But now there is no Countess of Paris (sadly enough because I liked her) anymore to veto these things.

A pity that the heir to the italian throne is having such a scaled down wedding, but it must be very romantic for the couple. I expect the bride to wear something natural an extremely simple.

 

[Warren]

Engagement stopper

Great, I was already worrying that they did not give a date. His cousin Jean of France & Duchess Tatiana of Oldenburg took their time for this as well, and we all know how that ended. But now there is no Countess of Paris (sadly enough because I liked her) anymore to veto these things.

I thought it was Prince Jean's father, the current Comte de Paris, who put a stop to the engagement with Duchess Tatiania in June 2001. He would not allow his son to marry a Protestant Princess.

Interestingly enough Duchess Eilika (Tatiana's sister) married Archduke Georg of Austria (Archduke Otto's second son) with no problems whatsoever. The Habsburgs more liberal than the Orléans? Who would have thought it!
.

 

[Idriel]

I thought it was Prince Jean's father, the current Comte de Paris, who put a stop to the engagement with Duchess Tatiania in June 2001. He would not allow his son to marry a Protestant Princess.

If it's true, that's just ridiculous! Henry married a commoner and he is a divorcee. How can he be so snobby?

BTW, according certain sources, the date and the place has been modified (it was already reported from the 6th to the 8th).
I post more when I know more.

 

[Warren]

Two rules for the Comte

If it's true, that's just ridiculous! Henry married a commoner and he is a divorcee. How can he be so snobby?

Ah, but the difference is that his first wife, and mother of his children, was a Duchess of Württemberg, a Royal Highness and a Roman Catholic. Obviously the current Comte has a different set of rules for second marriages, and a liberal interpretation at that when they apply to himself!
.

 

[Cathérine Bergeyck]

It was nobody from the family, prince Jean realized himself that he didn't want to go through with it.

In an interview he said that the more the wedding day approached the more hesitant he felt, he realized that it was more a very strong friendship than love.

His grandmother, the countess of Paris, was not against it, she posed for photos with the engaged couple in a very sweet way. She did tell he grandson that if he had doubts he had to think it over again.

 

[Sancia]

According to Point de Vue (edition of today), the wedding has been postponed to spring 2006.

 

[Hannelore]

from this week's (09/07) point de vue:

MARRIAGE IN SPRING

The wedding of Olga of Greece and Aimone di Savoia-Aosta, which was planned to take place on October 8 - as we anounced to you in last week's edition - has been postponed to next spring. Nothing to worry about, the engaged couple and their families have decided they need some extra months to be able to perfectly organize their royal ceremony.

frédérique Dédet, Jérome Carron & Kitty Russell.

 

[Tinika]

Pic of the couple

I love this photo--they look like a noble couple from Tsarist Russia.

 

[Lady Marmalade]

I love this this story of the two of them. We have not seen a truly old fashioned, hard core, royal courtship and marriage in a long time.

I cannot wait for the wedding pictures..

So...any word on which royals will be there??????

I would assume the Aosta family, the Savoys, the Orleans, the Greek Royal Family, maybe some of the junior members of other famililes...Spain perhaps??

The one thing I found a bit odd and old fashioned is how closely blood related they are to each other....just like QEII and Prince Philip in that sense.

My American brain still cannot wrap my mind around cousins that close getting married...but I am sure it will be the height of elegance and class.

 

[carlota]

I love this this story of the two of them. We have not seen a truly old fashioned, hard core, royal courtship and marriage in a long time.

I cannot wait for the wedding pictures..

So...any word on which royals will be there??????

I would assume the Aosta family, the Savoys, the Orleans, the Greek Royal Family, maybe some of the junior members of other famililes...Spain perhaps??
married...but I am sure it will be the height of elegance and class.

i agree, lady marmalade. this is definetely one of the nicest royal stories these days

at first i thought many representants of the european gotha would be there, but apparently they plan to do a very intimate wedding. however, intimate doesn't mean less glittering (actually the opposite!) but it's a pity there won't be many royals there...

 

[Hannelore]

I heard they were planning a very intimate wedding (for about 40 persons) on the isle of Patmos, and a grand glittering reception and party a few weeks later, for their royal (and other ) friends and relatives.

But perhaps with this little delay, they'll come up with a change of plans ???