Isabel de Baviera (1837-1898), Sissi, had an anchor tattooed on her shoulder, for her love of the sea . It was not a youthful madness, as he did so in his fifties, during one of his many stays on the Greek island of Corfu.
At that time, she was very affected by the Mayerling crime , in which her son, Rudolph of Habsburg – who was the crown prince of Austria – committed suicide together with his lover, Baroness Maria Vetsera, only 18 years old.
The cinema has created the image of a cheesy Sissi, but the Empress was an intelligent, complex and too free woman for her time . She smoked, drank beer and was a compulsive gymnast and follower of unique diets, as the journalist José Ángel Martos explains in Extra Questions & Answers No. 36 of Muy Interesante.
He hated the ceremonials of the Viennese court and stayed away from it until he disappeared from public life. From the age of thirty-five, she refused to be portrayed by painters and, later, take photos of her . When he went out, he hid behind umbrellas, veils and fans.
