'Lively' Italian waiter chokes to death eating mozzarella

SABAUDIA – A 50-year-old Italian waiter has died after choking eating a piece of mozzarella during a break from work, police say. He was well known, especially to beachgoers.

  Il Corriere della Sera newspaper said Adriano Poponessi was "a lively person", a waiter at the restaurant 'La Spiaggia', known to everyone and one of the pillars of the Carbonelli family's beach resort in Sabaudia, a coastal town south of Rome.

  The incident happened on Saturday afternoon during a break from work, shortly after 6 p.m. -- a piece of mozzarella went the wrong way and he began to feel ill due to the obstruction of his airways, no doubt baffling investigators in an ironic twist, seeing as he himself had been serving the delicious cheese to customers for many years. The emergency services were called immediately, while everything possible was done to resuscitate the 50-year-old, who was subsequently transferred to an air ambulance chopper and flown to the nearby Santa Maria Goretti hospital in Latina.

  There was unfortunately nothing that could be done and his heart stopped beating on what should have been a normal working day, which he had approached with joy and enthusiasm, Corriere added. A musical event scheduled to take place shortly afterwards at the Carbonelli resort was cancelled. The funeral was held in Latina on Monday at 11 a.m. at the parish church of San Luca.

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