Rome mourns "father of auditorium"

 Prof. Ghio, who was a respected and popular figure at Roma Tre university, worked as a senior architect for two mayors of Rome, Francesco Rutelli and Walter Veltroni, who paid tribute at the funeral held in a packed Santa Maria del Popolo Monday to his "dynamic and determined" contribution to transforming the city.

 It was Prof. Ghio who realised that the Auditorium's beetle like structures would best be located in their current space near the Tiber beneath the hill of Monti Parioli rather than at the crowded Piazzale Flaminio area where they first were due to be erected, and persuaded authorities to make the shift.

 Francesco also was a senior influence in the construction of the pioneering Macro and Maxxi museums. Architecture was in his blood, having inherited the skills of his successful and equally charming father while his mother was an Alderwoman for Cultural Heritage during an earlier left-wing city administration in the 1980s.

 From an early age when he studied at la Sapienza university, Francesco was marked out as a future high flier while enjoying a reputation as a bon vivant and a highly civilised man whose home was always open to friends from Britain and France who would be given beds in his father's capacious studio in the via delle Tre Madonne and then entertained generously for weeks and sometimes months.

 I first met Francesco driving a battered Ford transit in Morocco in 1977 and we travelled through north Africa with his friends Francesco Garofalo and Stefano Marrone on an adventure that heralded many more in Rome, Stromboli and elsewhere in years to come.

 After being diagnosed with cancer he battled the illness courageously and uncomplainingly, returning to work on his white Vespa with renewed energy and enthusiasm until a short time ago.

 "When the time comes to compile the history of the cobblestones of Rome, the distinctive imprint of Francesco Ghio will surely be noted," Veltroni said in his tribute.