I Am Skeptical
The story about shared similarities between King Umberto I and a restaurateur has been posted on a number of blogs and websites, including Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Cracked.com, but I'm not sure how reliable any of these sources are. I, along with a number of others, have unsuccessfully tried to verify the story. I'm thinking it's a hoax, though it's probably worth noting that it hasn't been debunked either, at least not that I'm aware of.
So...with that caveat in mind, here goes...
On July 28, 1900, King Umberto I of Italy went to a small restaurant in Monza for dinner. The restaurant owner was also named Umberto, and when he took the king's order, they both noticed that they looked virtually identical to each other, in face and build. As the two men talked, they discovered some other coincidences:
Both men were born on the same day--March 14, 1844.
Both men were born in the same city--Turin.
Both men were married to a woman named Margherita.
Both men were married on the same day.
Both men had a son named Vittorio.
Both men served in the Italian military, each was decorated for bravery on two occasions, and both were promoted on the same day (but to different ranks).
The restaurateur opened his establishment on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy.
On July 29, 1900, King Umberto was at a sporting event--to which the other Umberto had been invited--when he was informed that the restaurant owner had been killed in a mysterious shooting accident earlier in the day. As the king expressed his regret and discussed plans to attend the man's funeral, he was shot four times by an assassin in the crowd and died.
So...with that caveat in mind, here goes...
On July 28, 1900, King Umberto I of Italy went to a small restaurant in Monza for dinner. The restaurant owner was also named Umberto, and when he took the king's order, they both noticed that they looked virtually identical to each other, in face and build. As the two men talked, they discovered some other coincidences:
Both men were born on the same day--March 14, 1844.
Both men were born in the same city--Turin.
Both men were married to a woman named Margherita.
Both men were married on the same day.
Both men had a son named Vittorio.
Both men served in the Italian military, each was decorated for bravery on two occasions, and both were promoted on the same day (but to different ranks).
The restaurateur opened his establishment on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy.
On July 29, 1900, King Umberto was at a sporting event--to which the other Umberto had been invited--when he was informed that the restaurant owner had been killed in a mysterious shooting accident earlier in the day. As the king expressed his regret and discussed plans to attend the man's funeral, he was shot four times by an assassin in the crowd and died.
