Priest, poet and writer

Antonio Amoretti was born in San Remo on 28 July 1791.

After studying Latin, at the age of twenty he embarked on an ecclesiastical career. But he also began a long teaching career.

In 1823 he won a competitive examination for a chair in rhetoric and humanity at the Civic College of Sanremo, where he taught until 1839, when he had to retire to make room for another teacher, who was apparently more recommended than him, but there is no reliable historical data.
However, his career did not end there.

In 1848 he became a teacher of Fine Arts at the Royal College of Nice and in 1849 he was even Provveditore agli Studi of the then province of Sanremo.
He could also have become a university lecturer but when, in 1854, he was offered the chair of eloquence at the University of Genoa, he had to turn it down so as not to leave his elderly parents who lived in Sanremo.

His scholastic career ended in 1857 when, having almost completely lost his eyesight, he received a pension.

He died in San Remo on 18th February 1870.

His works include writings, all related to Sanremo, such as "Del dipinto a fresco" painted by Jacopo Boni in the Sanctuary of Madonna della Costa , Cenni su la vita di Francesco Maria Gaudio and Cenni storici del canonico G.B.Musso.

Today's Via Amoretti, located in La Pigna, had its ups and downs over time before being named after the abbot.
Initially, until 1901 it was called vicolo Riccobono but the name, in order not to confuse it with the nearby via Riccobono, was changed to via Sebastiano Gazzano, an obscure inhabitant of Sanremo who in 1753 was charged with leading a delegation that had to ask the King of Sardinia for help against Genoa.

The delegation probably never reached Turin, because Sebastiano Gazzano was killed in Perinaldo.
Ironically, after the name of the street disappeared from the town's toponymy in 1903, it was renamed Via Perinaldo.

In 1911, the Census Commission - which was responsible for toponymy at the time - named a street in the old town, connecting Via Riccobono to Vicolo Piazzaretto, after him.
As in the case of the latter, Via Amoretti was also affected by the drainage works carried out in 1987.

This was not the first time that a street was dedicated to Abbot Amoretti. Previously, in 1901, a more central street connecting via Marsaglia to via Roglio was named after him, but the socialist administration of Mombello in the early years of the century preferred the more resurgent name of via Mentana.

(sources: news taken from Bruno Monticone and Marco Mauro)