She was one of eight children – five sisters and three brothers – and was the world’s last living link to the 19th century.

She lived through two World Wars, worked in a jute factory and courageously decided to separate from an abusive husband at a time when divorce was frowned on.

The centenarian had become something of a celebrity, with her own Wikipedia entry, and earlier this year her long life was marked by a party and concert organized by Verbania, the town in which she lived on the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.