There was no immediate comment from his company but a source confirmed the reports.
Del Vecchio rose from a childhood in an orphanage to amass a fortune of tens of billions of euros in one of the most famous rags-to-riches stories in Italy's post-war economic recovery.
The Italian businessman founded Luxottica in 1961 and built up a company which owns the Ray-Ban brand and combined forces with France's Essilor in a major merger in 2018.
His influence extended beyond his own business.
His Delfin holding company is the largest shareholder in Italian financial services group Mediobanca and has a stake of just under 10% in Italy's largest insurer Generali.
(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi, writing by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Keith Weir)