Italy is mourning TV icon and national treasure Pippo Baudo, the king of TV presenters, who died at the weekend aged 89.

Among many showbiz heights, Baudo presented the Sanremo Song Festival a record 13 times.

The funeral chapel set up for Baudo at RAI state broadcaster's light-entertainment theatre Teatro delle Vittorie in Rome, the stage for so many of his hit shows, opened at 10:00 a.m., for a final farewell to the great TV host.

It will remain open until 8:00 p.m.

today and from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Sunday afternoon-long variety show host Mara Venier and Baudo's ex wife Katia Ricciarelli were among the first to arrive, arm in arm.

Others who paid tribute to the great host were comics Lino Banfi and Fiorello, entertainer Renzo Arbore, the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli, impressionist Max Giusti, and singer-songwriter Eros Ramazzotti.

RAI Director-General Roberto Sergio said "RAI will continue to draw inspiration from Baudo."

A wreath was sent by President Sergio Mattarella, who at his death Saturday night called Baudo a "protagonist and great innovator of Italian TV."

Baudo's funeral will take place Wednesday in his hometown of Militello Val di Catania in Sicily.

Among many of his guests and sparring partners was madcap Tuscan comic and Oscar winning Life Is Beautiful actor-director Roberto Benigni, who told ANSA:"With him and thanks to him, there were moments of prodigious television entertainment, of unbridled joy and irrepressible joy. Bravissimo. A true professional. Thank you, dear Pippo."

Ramazotti told reporters "Baudo was the best"; Giusti said "he accompanied a country"; Giuli, the culture minister, said "he represented the best kind of TV"; and Fiorello said "they should put up a statue of him outside Rai HQ".

Another mourner and one of Baudo's main heirs, presenter Carlo Conti, said "it's impossible to be his heir, he was unique and unrepeatable".

Another to pay tribute, 70s and 80s sexy comedy icon Gloria Guida, said "he was like a father to me".

A man whom Baudo saved from throwing himself off the balcony at Sanremo in 1995 said he was "in mourning for the man who saved my life".

Monsignor Dario Edoardo Viganò, Vice Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences, told the SIR news agency that "Pippo Baudo contributed to Italy's cultural growth".
   

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