Mayor, Teacher and Engineer

Eugenio Bottini was born in Sanremo on 7th September 1874 to Giovanni Battista and Rosa Martini. Graduated in Engineering, he worked as an engineer also teaching mathematical sciences in local secondary schools. After the local elections of 24 March 1946, he was elected mayor by a large majority of the Board in the following 12 April.

Once the Town Council had been launched, which also included the lawyer Guido Roggero and Augusto Alberti, his administration was first of all responsible for having the rubble from the recent conflict removed, demolishing the dangerous buildings and repairing the roads damaged by the bombardments; it was also necessary to free the port basin from numerous sunken boats, together with a large ship loaded with stones that obstructed the entrance to the port.

During his term of office he also commissioned a group of engineers and architects from Sanremo, headed by engineer Bartolomeo Corradi, to draw up a town-planning plan for the city, which was completed at the end of 1947. The plan provided for the upstream railway to be moved upstream, thus constraining the building disorder of the new buildings that were beginning to rise along the coast.
In 1947 the new seat of the Flower Market was also inaugurated, located in Corso Garibaldi next to the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
The new flower market occupied an area of 7,200 metres.
squares of which 6,000 for the bargaining area and 1,200 for offices and various services. The market could be accessed through three entrances: Corso Garibaldi, Via Marsaglia and Via Volta. The structure also contained all the institutional and private services necessary to carry out agricultural and commercial activities, but did not have its own car park, which would later create many inconveniences for the many users of the market itself.

On 25th January 1947 the Casino Opera House reopened, which for the occasion started a fruitful collaboration with the artistic direction of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Rome Opera House.
The Administration he presided over also took care of the coverage of the torrents and the arrangement of Via Martiri della Libertà, which was entrusted to the Bertolo company. In those months the Town Council also discussed the opportunity to build a new courthouse, as the old one had been destroyed by bombing and the one then housed in Villa Ormond was completely provisional, but for the moment nothing was done about it.

In the meantime, a year after his election, Bottini was the victim of a real coup d'état by the majority advisors, who wanted to prevent the Junta from granting the management of the Casino to another company, since the shareholders of the then royal dealer, C1RT, were going through a particularly difficult period due to
a number of financial and administrative problems.
After several trips he made to Rome together with various councillors, on 29 December 1946 the City Council decided to renew the Casino's contract with the CIT Company (Compagnia Italiana Turismo), which took over from the failed CIRT.

In April 1947, after the resignation of the communist councillors Buttafava, Napolitano and Rossi on the Casino issue, Bottini was forced to resign as mayor and was then replaced by the Christian Democrat lawyer Paolo Manuel Gismondi.

As well as being mayor, he was also president for twenty years of the Opera Nazionale Maternità e Infanzia di Sanremo, president for fifteen years of the Asilo Infantile "F. Corradi", president of the Federazione Operaia Sanremese and president of the Opere Pie Cqmunali Riunite. He died in Sanremo, at the age of 97, on 23 March 1972.

(Source: Vite di Sanremesi Illustri di A. Gandolfo)