Born in 1964 in that land 'dreaming between today and tomorrow, of food, motors, luxury and dance halls' called Emilia, at the age of 18 he was in Vinci, as per family tradition, first to study optics and then optometry. Soon involved in association work, he climbed from the bottom rung of the National Federation of Optometrists to become its president in 2013. He has worked, compatibly with his current commitments, since 1988 in his family's optical centre.