Fiorenza Marchegiani

Fiorenza Marchegiani was born in Osimo, in the province of Ancona in the Marche region of Italy, on 31 July 1953. She lived for many years in the historic centre of Osimo, and her family also had roots in the neighbouring village of Offagna, whose mayor, Ezio Capitani, was a childhood friend.

She trained as an actress at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome before beginning her career in the theatre.

Marchegiani made her stage debut with the Teatro Stabile di Genova, appearing in Aleksandr Ostrovsky's The Forest at the Teatro Eleonora Duse in Genoa in 1976 and in Carlo Goldoni's The Venetian Twins, both directed by Luigi Squarzina. The Goldoni production was broadcast on RAI television in April 1978, and she appeared in several more television plays and miniseries over the next few years, including Delitto in piazza, Adua and Storia di Anna.

Her breakthrough came in 1981, when Massimo Troisi cast her as Marta in Ricomincio da tre, his first film as director. Marta, the girlfriend of Troisi's character Gaetano, is an emancipated woman who pushes him to grow up and overcome the fears that hold him back. The role was much admired by audiences and critics and remained the one for which she was best known. In 1982 she appeared in two more films, Delitti, amore e gelosia and Scusa se è poco.

From then on she worked mainly in television while continuing to act in films and on stage. Her stage work included Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's Metti, una sera a cena at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan in 1983, Strindberg's Miss Julie directed by Enzo Siciliano in 1989 and Steel Magnolias in 1997. On screen she appeared in D'Annunzio, Via Paradiso and Caldo soffocante, and on television in Olga e i suoi figli, I ragazzi del muretto, Racket and Morte di una ragazza perbene.

From 1999 she played Letizia Visconti Gherardi in the soap opera Vivere, one of her most popular roles, and in 2002 she played Giancarla Morante in Incantesimo. She also appeared in Sospetti and Elisa di Rivombrosa. Returning to the cinema, she played the wife of Christian De Sica's character in Natale a New York (2006) and appeared in La seconda volta non si scorda mai (2008). Later television work included Distretto di Polizia in 2009, Un amore e una vendetta and Il tredicesimo apostolo in 2011, the role of Livia Monforte in Le tre rose di Eva from 2012 to 2015 and I bastardi di Pizzofalcone in 2023.

Marchegiani was the mother of the footballer Filippo Maria Scardina, born in 1992, who came through the youth system of AS Roma. In 2009, aged 17, he came on as a substitute in a Europa League match against CSKA Sofia and scored within minutes, dedicating the goal to his mother. She later told the Corriere dello Sport that it could not have been better, while admitting that being the mother of a 17 year old was not always easy.

She kept close ties with Osimo and Offagna throughout her life. In 2005 the town of Osimo awarded her its civic merit.

Fiorenza Marchegiani died at her home in Albano Laziale, near Rome, on the morning of 11 August 2026, aged 73. She had withdrawn from public life some years earlier. The cause of her death was not made public.

The mayor of Osimo, Michela Glorio, said the town mourned a brilliant actress who had often been seen walking with her unmatched elegance along Corso Mazzini, and thanked her for what she had given to Italian culture and cinema. The mayor of Offagna, Ezio Capitani, thanked her for what she had given to theatre, cinema and culture and for always staying attached to the village. Her son announced the funeral, which was held at the church of Santa Lucia del Gonfalone in Via dei Banchi Vecchi, Rome, on the morning of 13 August.

For many Italian viewers Marchegiani remained the Marta of Ricomincio da tre, one of the defining Italian comedies of the early 1980s and the film that launched Massimo Troisi as a director. Her long career, moving between the stage, the cinema and some of the most watched Italian television dramas of the 1990s and 2000s, made her a familiar face to several generations of audiences.