Don Nicola Caracciolo, 10th Prince of Castagneto, 5th Duke of Melito (19 May 1931 – 24 April 2020), was an Italian nobleman, journalist, and historian.
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Early life
Born in Florence, Kingdom of Italy, he was the 10th Prince of Castagneto and the 5th Duke of Melito, being the descendent of an old noble Neapolitan family dating back to the Kingdom of Naples. His father was Filippo Caracciolo (1903–1965), the 8th Prince of Castagneto, the 3rd Duke of Melito, and an hereditary Patrician of Naples. His mother was Margaret Clarke (1898–1955) of Peoria, Illinois, the heiress of a well-known family of whiskey producers. He had two siblings: Carlo Caracciolo (1925–2008) who went on to found the Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, and Marella Agnelli (1927–2019) who became an art collector, socialite, style icon, and wife of Fiat S.p.A. chairman Gianni Agnelli. Along with them, he grew up in Rome and Turkey, and spoke Italian, French, and English.
Career
Caracciolo's journalism career included being the special correspondent for L'Espresso and Il Giorno during the Algerian War, and then the Washington correspondent for La Stampa from 1964 to 1969. Since 1970, he was the author of numerous articles for the Boomerang television magazine and since 1974 shot several documentaries together with Emanuele Vittorio Marino, most of which deal with themes of contemporary and historical Italy and have been well received by both the public and critics. He was also an environmentalist, and he was particularly concerned about nature conservation and was opposed to the construction of the Tyrrhenian motorway in Maremma, where he was called "the prince of Capalbio". In the town, he headed the literary prize and the Maremma Tuscia section of Italia Nostra, of which he served as honorary president.