FLAMBOYANT and fun, with a touch of glamour.

That was how Franco Fantini always wanted to be remembered by his “family of friends’’ in his adopted home of Southampton.

His final wish will be granted next Thursday when hundreds of people are expected to gather to celebrate the life of Franco, one of Southampton’s most colourful restaurateurs, who died earlier this week.

A pair of white horses, each with a plume of pink feathers, pulling a white Victorian funeral carriage will leave Franco’s La Margherita restaurant at Town Quay at 11am and make its way through the city centre streets to St Edmund’s Church, in The Avenue.

After a full Roman Catholic Mass the cortege carrying Franco’s walnut coffin, imported from his birthplace of Italy and featuring a carving depicting the Last Supper on the side, will move on to the city’s crematorium for a short service.

Franco never forgot the night when his favourite singing diva, Shirley Bassey, dined at La Margherita – then in Southampton’s Commercial Road – so her recordings of the songs Big Spender and I Am What I Am will be played during the funeral.

Nikos Raftopolous, Franco’s business partner, who is helping to organise the funeral, said: “After the cremation everyone will return to La Margherita, where we will hold a big party – just the sort of occasion that Franco always enjoyed.

“We hope the funeral will reflect Franco, the way he lived his life and how he will forever be remembered in Southampton.

Franco never married but he constantly thought of his family of friends, who will always think of him as a kind and generous father figure.’’ It was in 1973 that Franco, who had previously worked on a number of Southampton cruise ships, came ashore and opened the Cabin Crew cafe, later to be renamed La Margherita – Italian for “little flower’’ – in Commercial Road.

The restaurant became so popular that it expanded into bigger premises, but when the area was earmarked for redevelopment it relocated to Town Quay.

● Donations to Marie Curie Cancer Care and the Terrence Higgins Trust in memory of Franco can be sent to Jonathan Terry Independent Funeral Director, 101, Peartree Avenue, Bitterne, Southampton, SO19 7JJ.