Unable to secure employment, he departed for the United States in 1913. Īfter living in Paris in 1912, he soon returned to Italy. He did poorly in school and was eventually enrolled in agricultural school in Genoa, where he earned a certificate. His mother coddled him, while his father disapproved of him.
Īs a child, Rodolfo was indulged because of his exceptional looks and his playful personality. Valentino had an older brother, Alberto (1892–1981), a younger sister, Maria, and an older sister, Beatrice, who had died in infancy. His mother, Marie Berthe Gabrielle Barbin (1856–1918), was French with Torinese ancestry, born in Lure in Franche-Comté. His father, Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fedele Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella, was an Italian from Martina Franca, Apulia he was a captain of cavalry in the Italian Army, later a veterinarian, who died of malaria when Rodolfo was 11. Valentino was born in Castellaneta, Apulia, and named Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella.
