He met his future wife in the local town, where she had been sent to recover from pleurisy. They married in 1936. Their daughter Lucia was born in 1938, followed by their son Vincenzo in 1940, who died a few months later from meningitis. Another daughter, Maria, was born in 1946, and a second son in 1952. His wife passed away in 2015 at the age of 98 from leukemia.

When he left for World War II, he had to leave his wife and daughter at home. At first, he was able to return periodically. However, while in Greece, on 8 September 1943, he was captured by German forces and taken to an internment camp in Rhodes, where he remained until 27 November 1943. Despite having only a third-grade education, he was the only member of his artillery group who could write, and he was therefore responsible for handling everyone’s correspondence.

He was later interned at the Sagan–Stalag VIII-C camp until 8 May 1945, when Soviet troops liberated the prisoners. He returned to his native village on 27 October 1945. After the war’s end, he returned to his homeland and found employment as a muleteer.

When he was 103 years old, he claimed that a healthy, stress-free life was the secret of his longevity. He still possessed the ability to use a hoe and pruning shears.

Until the age of 106, he lived and worked in the countryside, tending sheep, a vineyard, and cultivated fields. After that, he kept only rabbits and chickens. He never held a driving license and had no interest in learning to ride a bicycle. Instead, he relied on a mule, having worked as a muleteer in his youth.

According to his family, he followed a Mediterranean diet rich in legumes and locally grown fruits and vegetables. Even into his centenarian years, he drank a glass of his own homemade wine with meals. For many years, he took a daily dose of aspirin along with a few supplements, which constituted all of his medication.

On December 2022 he became the oldest male ever lived in the region of Basilicata.

On 15 July 2023, following the death of 108-year-old Luigi Miti, he became the last surviving Italian man born in 1914.

On 28 March 2024, he celebrated his 110th birthday, becoming the first male supercentenarian from the region of Basilicata.

On 31 March 2024, following the death of 110-year-old Michele Cicora, he became the oldest living man in Italy.

On 23 January 2026, following the death of 111-year-old Maurice Le Coutour of France, he became the last known surviving European man born in 1914.

On 28 March 2026, he celebrated his 112th birthday, becoming the third man in Italy to reach the age of 112, and the first to do so since December 2002, when Giovanni Frau turned 112. At the time, he was the second-oldest living person in Italy (after Lucia Laura Sangenito), and the second-oldest living man in Europe (after Ilie Ciocan).

He is the fourth-oldest validated living man in the world, behind 113-year-old Joao Marinho Neto of Brazil, 112-year-old Ilie Ciocan of Romania, and 112-year-old Ken Weeks of Australia.