Born in Caronno Pertusella on 10 October 1950 from Rosina, the mother and Giuseppe, his father, who worked as a carpenter, first of five children: Mariadele, Enrico, Giovanni, Anna are the names of the brothers.

He had a complicated childhood and youth by the post-war difficulties and the limited economic resources of that time, common problems to many families.

He had a rigid religious education, he had a passion for philosophical, Marxist, religious and socio-existential studies, protagonist, together with friends and classmates, of the movements of the “68”, the year in which the teaching class was accused for being too authoritarian.

On the spur of the “68”, years of intense social commitment, of religious practice, of community meetings with Catholic groups from all over Italy, of attention to the teachings of the great Marxist and Maoist movements, of the great personalities who marked that time as “Gandhi” and “Martin Luther King”, of the international liberation movements under the sign of “Che Guevara” and “Fidel Castro”: those were years in which, for ideals, he was willing to do “so much”.

After obtaining the diploma of Industrial Expert and having completed military service, he took the first important choice of his life: accepting the job offer of an important German company with an internship in Germany or going to Rome to continue the love story with Antonietta, a girl he knew during a humanitarian experience among the slums of the “Happy Aqueduct”.

In the autumn of 1972 he left for Rome, with a cardboard suitcase, following the choice of the “heart” at the expense of “safe work”, the guest of three extraordinary people: “Don Silvio”, Edda and Paola, the first: Xaverian priest, forced into a wheelchair by a road accident and the others: focolarine engaged in the assistance of the priest and in social work. The house is under the Arches of the “Happy Aqueduct” among about three hundred families who live in conditions at the limits of subsistence.

The fight in favor of the slums begins: after the publication of awareness of a newspaper entitled “Roma 70”, circulation of 10,000 copies (as “editor in chief”), a press meeting is convened, with political and religious authorities, in this meeting a “miracle” occurs: all the parties commit themselves to deliver new public housing for all the residents of the “Happy Aqueduct”, partly to the “Sangiorgio Village” of Acilia built by the Vatican and partly to “Nuova Ostia” offered by the Municipality of Rome.

In December 1975 he began teaching “Technical Education” in middle schools until 2008 in conjunction with retirement. In 1977 Sara was born and the family lived a moment of great happiness, then she moved to the “Corso Francia” area of Rome, it was one of the times of greatest commitment: he obtained the qualification to teach “Technical Education”, attends exams at university, first in Law and then in Architecture, he studies, teaches and works simultaneously.

But when it seems that life is smiling to him, at the end of spring 1991, the sentimental break with Antonietta arrives and the traumatic separation that so far coincides with the most dramatic moment of his life: homeless, he lives two months in a caravan, without a family acquired and 600 km away from the family of origin. He leaves university studies, a devastating existential conflict arises within him, very close to the psychological end, he partially loses his memory and thinks at the end: he denies religious faith, he sees himself without purpose, without affection, with his body similar to that of Michelangelo (made of leather) painted in the “Last Judgment”.

Then … a long journey, which will last at least 4 years, in which “CoLui” (initials of Colombo Luigi) is born, a new man who starts from body care in search of reason and feeling, writes and paints as the only antidote for self-certification and self-generating codes of new life, all animated by a little hope: “if I survive now I can do it as long as I exist”.

The daughter, parents, siblings, a few friends, teaching in a familiar school environment, a lot of work to think less, physical activity, obsessive care for the new “es” and the purchase of a modest apartment north of Rome (with a full-bodied mortgage) have traced a new path, however, love continues to be petrified.

Since 1985 … a lot of work, in 2000 a new love “Simona”, a new home in Casalpalocco, a big party for 50 years with friends and family: they are years of great vigor, travel, economic consolidation. In 2002 he published the volume “Io come me” a collection of paintings, sculptures, poems, reflections that bring together twenty years of artistic commitment, the volume is used as a text at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. In 2006 Iosef was born, second child, in 2007 the mother died after he lost his father in 1992. He left his job in 2018 and since then he has dedicated himself almost exclusively to his artistic passion: he is preparing a second publication “Io come noi” with new and old works.