“I have lived across two centuries and I have met countless people, among them brilliant minds like Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, Wolfgang Pauli. I’ve learned that life is a receptacle: you always need to imagine it half-full. I was born in tragic times - times in which you couldn’t but be an optimist (…).

The fascist regime made us children dress in a Balilla uniform. My father was a partisan and my mother an anti-fascist. My parents brought me up to believe in freedom and the importance of knowledge. I have always favoured the future over the present, and I like invention. Immediately after the war, the desire to progress was strong it has never really impacted with the same force since."