I was born in Montenero di Bisaccia (Campobasso) on 2 October 1950. I’m now living in Curno in the Province of Bergamo. I’m married. I’ve got three children and I’m a grandpa.

At the age of 21 I emigrated to Bavaria in Germany to work in a production line in the metal industry and later in a sawmill.

In 1973 I came back to work in Italy as a civil employee of the Military Aeronautics. I went back to studying and in 1978 I graduated in jurisprudence at the State University of Milan.

In 1979, through a public competition I gained the position of town clerk in some of the small towns in the area of Como.
In 1980, another public competition allowed me to become Police Commissioner of the IV district of Milan with responsibility for the judicial police. In the same year I took the exams to be a legal prosecutor in forensics.

In 1981 I became a magistrate and after a period I became Vice Prosecutor in the Procura di Bergamo.

In 1985 I was transferred to the Procura di Milano asVice Prosecutor and I was engaged in enquiries into organised crime and crimes against the Public Administration. This was the time of the “Mani Pulite”  (Clean Hands) enquiry.
In 1989 I was an information consultant with the Ministry of Justice.

In 1995, having left the magistrature, I was appointed to the Chair of Penal Rights in Economy at the Libero Istituto Universitario “Carlo Cattaneo ” di Castellanza (VA). I was also appointed consultant to the “Parliamentary Commission on Slaughter” and consultant to the “ParliamentaryCommission on Cooperation with Developing Countries.”

On 26 November 1995 I received an honorary degree from the Faculty of Jurisprudence at the University of Thrace in Greece.

In May 1996, in the Prodi Government, I became Minister of Public Works.

From November 1997 to 2001 I was Senator of the Republic elected from Mugello.

Since June 1999 I have been a Member of the European Parliament. In this capacity I have been Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with South America then for Central Asia – and currently for South Africa.

In 2000 I founded the party called Italia dei Valori (Italy of Values). At the moment I am its Executive President.

At the 2006 elections the Unione won and Italia dei Valori becomes the fourth party in the governement with 20 MPs in the Lower Chamber and 5 Senators.
I was assigned the Ministry of Infrastructures.