In a tweet Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni saluted the acclaimed journalist as "a true professional, loved and respected by all”.
"Italy loses a great journalist and a man of deep culture," she added.
"Gianni Minà was not only a great journalist, but also an attentive and passionate narrator of contemporary society," opposition Democratic Party secretary Elly Schlein, said.
"(He was) an innovator in the way of narrating the world, always sensitive to the cause of the most vulnerable," she said in a television appearance on Tuesday.
Italian showman Rosario Fiorello paid homage to "the reporter of the great, the reporter who managed to meet extraordinary people, from the Dalai Lama to Muhammad Ali".
Minà interviewed many of the great figures of the last century, including Fidel Castro, Muhammad Ali, Federico Fellini, Eduardo De Filippo, Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Enzo Ferrari, for state broadcaster Rai.
In a statement, the Rai journalists' union, Usigrai, recalled his "unforgettable" interviews with the protagonists of sport, cinema and music.
They said he was "a rigorous professional who was always ready for new challenges in order to get the interview that each of us would have liked to do".
Minà's body will be laid out for people to pay their respects on the Campidoglio (Capitol) on Wednesday.
ANSA
