Mr Emilio Giovanni Andrea Onorato Mangiavacchi was born in Bibbiena near Florence, Tuscany, Italy on 16 August 1864.¹ Coming from a comfortable middle-class family, he was the son of magistrate Federigo Mangiavacchi and his wife Enrichetta, née Mochi.²

Reportedly well-educated, the young Emilio was filled with a wanderlust and by 1890 he was living in Chile where he was employed as a fire-fighter for Cuarta Compañia de Bomberos in Concepción; here he acquired fluency in Spanish.

By the early 1900s Emilio had returned to Italy and he was married there around 1903 to Nella Bianciardi (b. 1879); they would go on to be the parents of four children and their first child Julius was born in 1904.

Later in 1904 Mangiavacchi, his wife and young son emigrated to the United States, departing from Genoa and arriving in New York on 12 October aboard the Buenos Aires. They settled in New York and there another two children were born, Federico (b. 1907) and Harry (b. 1910). The small family appear on the 1910 census living on Fulton Avenue in The Bronx with Emilio being described as a realtor and by 1912 he was reportedly earning $100 per month in a New York-based Italian bank.

By the end of 1911 Nella was again pregnant but Emilio had been making plans to return to Italy for treatment for an enduring but unknown ailment. His operation in Italy was reportedly successful and he made plans to return to his family in New York, spending time in Paris before departing Europe. He boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as a second class passenger (ticket number 2861 which cost £15, 11s, 7d).

Emilio Mangiavacchi died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

His wife, who had been pregnant at the time of the sinking, gave birth to daughter Maria Emilia later in 1912.
Nella Mangiavacchi later received relief from the American Red Cross:

The husband was drowned. He was returning from Italy where he had undergone a successful operation for a long standing disease. He was a clerk in an Italian bank in New York City, earning 100 dollars a month, and was a man of education and culture. He is survived by a wife, 33 years of age, and and four children, the youngest of whom a baby born since the disaster, and the eldest a boy seven years of age. She came to this country with her husband seven years ago. After the birth of her baby, she decided to return with her children to Italy, to be near relatives and where living is less expensive. She sailed in September, 1912, and is now living in Florence near her husband's brother (Red Cross files, No. 293; Emilio Mangiavacchi)

Around late 1912 or early 1913 Nella and her children uprooted from New York and returned to Florence. Nella died there, coincidentally, on 14 April 1960.