Private funeral service held for Italian designer Giorgio Armani in church near his birthplace

RIVALTA, Italy (AP) — Family members and close friends attended a private funeral service on Monday for Giorgio Armani in a 14th century Italian church located within a medieval hamlet near the legendary fashion designer’s native city of Piacenza.

Armani, one of the most recognizable names and faces in the global fashion industry, died Thursday at the age of 91.

More than 15,000 mourners paid their respects during two days of public viewing in Milan over the weekend. But the funeral was kept strictly private, with only close friends and family attending the service in the Church of San Martino Vescovo in Rivalta, south of Milan.

Several dozen bystanders waited alongside the road to pay their final respects as the hearse carrying Armani’s coffin entered the cluster of medieval buildings. One woman threw a white rose as it passed.

Armani’s remains are expected to be interred nearby in the family chapel within the town’s small cemetery, where his parents and older brother are buried.

The designer often stopped to eat at a restaurant in the medieval cluster after visiting the chapel, Italian media has reported.

The Church of San Martino Vescovo is built on the remains of a medieval church, according to the town’s website.

Armani was born July 11, 1934, in Piacenza, on the banks of the Po River. He is survived by a younger sister, Rosanna, two nieces and one nephew.