Alessandro Cortese de Bosis


Alessandro Cortese de Bosis, (Rome, 1926), is a former Italian diplomat. Born in Rome to a family of writers and anti-fascists -his grandfather was Adolfo De Bosis, his uncle was Lauro, the author of the famous “flight over Rome”, and his aunt Virginia Vacca, a scholar of Islam - graduated in 1948 from the University of Rome in law, embarking on a diplomatic career in 1955. In 1956 he was vice consul in Paris, while from 1958 he was a member of the Permanent Delegation of Italy to the O.E.C.E., also in Paris. After several assignments in Rome, Budapest and Paris, in 1962 he was assigned to Moscow, Soviet Union, where he remained until 1966, when he was transferred to Washington, in the United States. Returning home in 1969, in 1976 he became Consul General in New York. In 1982 he was promoted to Ambassador of Italy to Hungary, a position he left the following year, with the appointment as Director General of Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Appointed Ambassador in Copenhagen in 1985, he remained in Denmark until 1990 when he was transferred to the Headquarters of the Multilateral Force and Observers for Sinai in Rome, with the position of Diplomatic Advisor.
After leaving diplomacy, once retired, he dedicated himself to cultural initiatives, such as the curatorship of the works and memory of his uncle Lauro De Bosis, poet and anti-fascist aviator. His wife was pianist Marina Boesch (great-granddaughter of Aurelio Saffi), who died in 2012. Since 2013 he has been president of the National Association of Fighters Regular Armed Forces War of Liberation (ANCFARGL).

Author of many books, including “In No Man’s Land: the Italian Officers with the Allied Regiments” in which he tells his experience as a liaison officer with the 6th / 13th Frontier Force Rifles of the 8th Indian Division. When asked why he felt the need to enlist, he replies: “It’s very simple. I needed to hitchhike to the Alps to liberate Italy. You gave me the chance.”


Dialogues with the Ambassador