Vice president of Italy`s public television network RAI and president
of "Nostra Italia" (1957).
The city of Ferrara with its Christian-Jewish life became the main
subject of his novels like "Gli occhiali d'oro" (1958) and "Il giardino
dei Finzi-Contini" (1962). The motion pictures The Gold Rimmed Glasses (1987) and the Academy Award winning The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) were based on them.
He studied at the University of Bologna and graduated in 1939. One year
later, he anonymously published (due to Mussolini's racial policy) his
first book "Una città di pianura".