No Picnic On Mount Kenya - About The Author

About The Author

Felice Benuzzi was born in Vienna on 16 November 1910 and grew up in Trieste, doing his early mountaineering in the Julian Alps and Dolomites. He studied law at Rome University and represented Italy as an international swimmer in 1933–35. He married in 1938 and had two daughters. He entered the Italian Colonial Service in 1938 and served in Italian-occupied Abyssinia, where he was captured by Allied forces when the country was liberated in 1941. He was imprisoned in Kenya (Nanyuki and Gilgil). Repatriated in August 1946, he entered the Italian Diplomatic Service in 1948, serving in Paris, Brisbane, Karachi, Canberra, West Berlin, and (as Head of Delegation) at the United Nations, before his appointment in 1973 as ambassador in Montevideo. Benuzzi retired to Rome (Via Nepi, 13), serving in retirement as Head of the Italian Delegation for the Antarctic. He died in Rome in July 1988. The col between Point Dutton and the Petit Gendarme on Mount Kenya has been named Benuzzi Col in his honour.