I was born in Genova, Italy, on October 25, 1952, the year of "High noon", the first polio vaccine, and "Take the A train".
I studied piano for 8 years, I thought it was a lot back then but I really hadn't even scratched the surface, and it took a steel-string guitar, the Beatles, the Shadows, and Paul Simon to make me play music more seriously, and most of all having fun, when I reached the more “independent” age of 14. I also tried to play electric bass, mandolin, dulcimer and autoharp, but by the age of 22 I found that I could express myself the best on the 5-string banjo.

In 1978 I formed, along with noted guitar player Beppe Gambetta, the group Red Wine, now one of Europe’s best know bluegrass bands. Aside from the intensive activity with Red Wine, which now plays all over Europe and the United States quite frequently, I also played banjo in the international band Freewheelin’ for some years, touring Europe and the USA and appearing on TV programs. I have played studio sessions on banjo, guitar and dobro several times, contributed to Italian and American musical magazines since 1980, and held quite a few banjo and band workshops
I have always been interested in performing set-up and small repair work on string instruments, but I began learning luthiery seriously in 1996, when I started working in one of Genova’s main luthier workshops, Airenti & Lowenberger. There master Federico Lowenberger teaches me the most serious and rigorous approach to traditional and contemporary luthiery, and his partner Antonino Airenti lends me his 20-years experience on building guitars.
I started building banjo bridges in 1998 (albeit on a very limited basis), and built my first guitar in 1999. Production of Scorpion Bridges began in earnest in 2001, when fine players like Tom McKinney, Ned Luberecki, Greg Cahill and Mark Johnson started endorsing them, and big mail-order companies like Janet Davis Music Company and Elderly Instruments started distributing them. I also started building banjo necks for a couple old Gibson pots that I had, around 1998, and not long afterwards I started building complete banjos as well.