A handsome man from a large and wealthy Roman family, Benvenuto Sisto Ripamonti, was endowed with several different talents along with a gracious manner of speech.
His father Domenico had one of the most prominent positions in Rome, right next to Victor Emanuel III, the King of Italy. Domenico was the owner of the Royal Printing Press license in Italy and his name appeared on all the official documents published by the Italian government.
Sisto was a gifted self-taught pianist. After entering a living room he would sit before a piano and play his music and not long after that everyone would gather around him to listen or sing along. The piano and he would become the center of merriment at that party in Rome.
One of the very first persons with an Italian driver’s license and a government issued passport he also drove some stunning luxury Italian cars right after the turn of the 1900’s.
A talented painter Nonno Sisto created stunning landscapes and floral arrangements. After the Second World War he sold many canvases in the United States through a friend who owned an Italian restaurant in Chicago.
He also advised my Dad’s cousin, Maria Grazia Bornigia, on how to paint and she went on to become a well know contemporary Italian painter and sculptor whose works of art sold on the open market for high prices.
Benvenuto Sisto Ripamonti was also a passionate and skilled hunter. His 12 gauge shot gun and well-trained pointing dog that accompanied him on his hunts gave him quite a reputation.
My Dad said that one time, while grandfather 
was hunting on the outskirts of Rome, he succeeded in shooting down close to 50 small birds at a single time with his double-barreled shot gun. Within the hunting circles in Rome he established the record for having achieved the greatest shot ever. From firsthand experience it was easy for those who knew him to ascertain that he was one of those few people who could tell you about something that had happened to him in the past and while he was describing the event you felt as if you were sitting there watching it take place all over again.
Even when he was 92 years old, and I was taking care of him, he always remained dignified bearing a gentle kind spirit. A gentle man to the very end of his life he was loved by all his relatives who spoke well of him and missed him dearly after he died.