Graduated at the University of Turin, professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Trieste.

Essayist and columnist for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and for other European journals and newspapers
Numerous studies have helped to promote an awareness in Italy of Central-European culture and of the literature of the Habsburg myth.

First book on the Habsburg myth in modern Austrian literature rediscovered central European literature. My journalistic writings have been collected in Dietro le parole ("Behind Words", 197😎 and Itaca e oltre ("Ithaca and Beyond", 1982). He has written essays on E.T.A. Hoffmann, Henrik Ibsen, Italo Svevo, Robert Musil, Hermann Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges. His novels and theatre productions, many translated into several languages, include Illazioni su una sciabola (1984; translated as Inferences from a sabre, ISBN ), Danubio (1986; translated as Danube: a sentimental journey from the source to the Black Sea