Alberto Manzi was born in Rome on November 3, 1924. His father, Ettore, worked as a tram driver, while his mother was a housewife of Abruzzese origin. In 1942, at the age of eighteen, he obtained two diplomas with good grades: one from the Teacher Training Institute and another from the Nautical Institute. He enrolled in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of La Sapienza in Rome. The following year, he enlisted as an officer in the submarines operating in Italian territorial waters. After September 8, he became an antifascist and joined the British 8th Army. Three years later, he decided to dedicate himself to working as a primary school teacher at the Aristide Gabelli Reeducation and Penitentiary Institute in Rome, where he worked to create the first newspaper for Italian penitentiary institutes, La Tradotta. In the same year, he graduated in Biology and enrolled, still unsatisfied, in the Faculty of Education.

In 1948, he wrote a novel for young readers, Grogh, storia di un castoro, about a courageous community of rodents. The book won the Premio Collodi and was published shortly after by Bompiani. It was translated into 28 languages and was broadcast by RAI in 1953. During these years, he also obtained degrees in Pedagogy and Philosophy and a specialization in Psychology, which led him to direct the Experimental School at the Faculty of Education at La Sapienza. In the mid-‘50s, however, feeling restless, Manzi abandoned his academic career to become a teacher at the F.lli Bandiera Elementary School in Rome. The University of Geneva awarded him a scholarship to travel to South America, specifically to the eastern area of the Amazon rainforest, to study the local cultures and their issues.

After that initial experience, Manzi traveled to the Amazon every year to follow the local populations and organize educational activities. This program soon became an international initiative. He wrote a novel featuring a white boy abandoned among the Bantù Swazi tribe in South Africa. The novel, titled Orzowei (‘foundling’ in Swazi), later became a very successful RAI TV series for children. The plot highlights Manzi’s social commitment. Isa, a white boy abandoned in the South African forest, is found and raised as a son by an old great warrior and an even older nurse, both belonging to a Bantu tribe of the Swazi ethnic group. Due to his pale skin, Isa is not accepted in the village, even after passing the dramatic initiation trial. To mock him, they call him Orzowei, the “foundling.” Particularly hostile is Mesei, the son of the village chief, whom Isa, now an adult, will ultimately defeat. Later, when he meets the white people, he realizes that they treat him worse than the black people ever did. Isa eventually returns to village life and will, against his will, fight a war, even against the tribe where he grew up.

In the 1960s, Manzi also created the TV program Non è mai troppo tardi (“It’s Never Too Late”). The program presented primary school lessons that the enthusiastic teacher delivered with grace and kindness to students of all social backgrounds and ages. The show became so beloved that it aired for eight consecutive years, from 1960 to 1968, helping at least one and a half million illiterate Italians obtain their elementary school diploma.

In 1986, the elderly teacher decided to move with his wife Sonia to Pitigliano, in the Maremma, a town where he had already been spending his free time for some time. In 1994, Alberto Manzi accepted the nomination and was elected mayor of Pitigliano, in the province of Grosseto. He completed his ethical and civil journey with the same social commitment that had always characterized him, alongside his educational efforts: in prisons, schools, radio, television, and through his literary production.

Even his daily work as the mayor did not stop his ability and desire to analyze and plan, both for the territory of Pitigliano and for the school and children. Among his mayoral papers, there is an illustration of the Progetto Azil for an open-air museum, based on the Etruscan and Jewish heritage of Pitigliano, designed to promote the region’s tourism development and the rediscovery of the past, the relationship between history, people, and the environment. This project was eventually realized, carries his name, and is now open for visits. Unfortunately, there is also a project that Manzi did not have time to complete: La Città dei bambini (“The City of Children”). Manzi remained the mayor of Pitigliano until December 1997, when he passed away at the age of 73 in his home in the town.