Franco Ferrario

Franco Ferrario
Franco F. Ferrario, in 2019
Born	Franco Filippo Ferrario 1934 (age 91–92)[1] Novara[1]
Other names	Tripeleff
Citizenship	Italian
Education	Università degli Studi di Milano University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Occupations	writer geographer historian
Known for	Tourism geography; literary works under the pen name Tripeleff
Website	tripeleff.org

Franco Filippo Ferrario, also known by his pen name Tripeleff (Novara, 1934^[1]), is an Italian writer, geographer, and historian.

In academic research, he has published several articles examining the role of landscape in the evaluation of a region's tourism potential.

In the literary field, he is the author of novels and historical short stories that incorporate themes of homosexual eroticism, some of which have attained cult status within Italian gay cultural circles.

He was born in Novara in 1934^[1] Given his ancestry mainly from Novara, he defines himself as a fifth generation Novarese^[2].

In 1959, he graduated cum laude in ancient history at the University of Milan. In his final year of study, he conducted research at the Italian Institute of Historical Studies (B. Croce Foundation) in Naples under a scholarship.^[3]

The following year, he was recruited by Pirelli and moved to Milan, where he worked for six years in the advertising department under the guidance of Arrigo Castellani.^[4] He later described the experience as intense, exciting, and highly inspiring.^[3]

He then moved to the United States, enrolling in 1966 at the University of California, Berkeley, where he later remained as an assistant. Upon his arrival at Berkeley, he received the nickname Triple F, due to the identical initials, from which he would later take his pen name, Tripeleff. In his final year, the university sent him to complete a six-month internship at the Regional and Community Development division of the United Nations in New York. He had a rather dull memory of the experience. In 1969, he completed his studies, obtaining a PhD in geography.^[3][5]

In 1970, he moved to South Africa, where he held the position of Senior Lecturer in geography at the University of Cape Town for the next 15 years.^[3][5] During that period, he published several articles on methods for evaluating a region's tourism potential, decisively correlating it with landscape (see the Nonfiction section). He gradually abandoned university teaching in favour of consultancy work.^[6]

In his early fifties he abandoned his career abroad and returned to Italy.^[4][6] He took advantage of retirement in 1986, occasionally working as an editorial consultant for a few more years.^[3][5] During this period, he began writing: he began with short, amusing and rather irreverent stories, such as Un'avventura galante del conte di Cavour (A gallant adventure of the Count of Cavour) and La vendetta di papa Giuseppe (The revenge of Pope Joseph). He kept these writings initially unpublished.^[4][6]

Between 1989 and 1990, over the course of a few months, he wrote his first novel, Odo e Riprando. The work is inspired by historical figures from 11th-century Novara — Oddo II and Riprando of Pombia, the 48th and 47th bishops of Novara respectively — and interweaves their relationship with the historical events of the Diocese of Novara. The work was published the following year and won first prize in the national competition L'autore (The author), organized by the publishing house Firenze Libri. It also proved to be a moderate commercial success, even decades later^[4], and immediately became a cult work in Milanese gay circles.^[7] In 1993 the work was translated into German by Thomas Rodermund.^[8]

The success of Odo e Riprando led to several related initiatives from 1992 onward. That year, a dramatized adaptation was produced and staged in Canonica Alley in Novara, setting of the opening of the novel, accompanied by a historical introduction and live music. At the same time, a group of Milan-based readers organized a visit to locations featured in the novel^[7], repeated in the following years with Ferrario himself as guide.^[9][10]

In 1992, he submitted the story Un'avventura galante del conte di Cavour (A gallant adventure of the Count of Cavour) to the Millelire in corso competition, organized by publisher Stampa Alternativa at Turin Book Fair. The work won the competition and was subsequently published. It achieved significant commercial success and attracted critical attention. Art critic Federico Zeri described the author as a skilled writer capable of combining erotic and humorous elements. The publication also generated controversy in Italy, prompting critical responses from national newspapers and magazines, including Corriere della Sera and Panorama. The latter also investigated the identity behind the pen name Tripeleff, eventually revealing the author to be a Novara-born writer, aged fifty-eight at the time.^[5][6]

• 1978: First prize for the best dissertation on travel and tourism presented at the William B. Keeling Dissertation Competition (organized by the U.S. Travel and Tourism Research Association): The tourist landscape: a method of evaluating tourist potential and its application to South Africa;^[11]
• 1991: First prize in the national competition L'autore (The author), organized by publisher Firenze Libri, for the historical novel Odo e Riprando.^[5][7]

• Franco F. Ferrario (1977), The tourist landscape: a method of evaluating tourist potential and its application to South Africa, Berkeley: University of California, OCLC 506167842
• Franco F. Ferrario (January–April 1979). "The evaluation of tourist resources: an applied methodology". Journal of Travel Research. 17 (3–4). SAGE Publications: 24–30. doi:10.1177/004728757901700405. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
• Franco F. Ferrario; KwaZulu Development Corporation (June 1981), An evaluation of the tourist potential of Kwazulu and Natal (PDF), Durban: KwaZulu Development Corporation, OCLC 9942899, retrieved 13 December 2025
• Franco F. Ferrario (June 1985), The South African holiday market now and in the next decade: co-operative inquiry (PDF), Pretoria: National Institute for Transport and Road Research, OCLC 16118111, retrieved 13 December 2025

In academic circles and in related publications he is sometimes erroneously reported as Francesco Ferrario.^[12]

• F. Tripeleff (1991). Odo e Riprando [Odo and Riprando] (in Italian). Firenze: White Land Atheneum. Retrieved 24 November 2025.
• F. Tripeleff (1992). Un'avventura galante del conte di Cavour [A gallant adventure of the Count of Cavour] (PDF) (in Italian). Roma: Stampa Alternativa. Retrieved 24 November 2025.
• F. Tripeleff (1993). La vendetta di Papa Giuseppe [The revenge of Pope Joseph] (PDF). Millelire (in Italian). Roma: Stampa Alternativa. Retrieved 24 November 2025.
• F. Tripeleff (1994). Un amore di Maria Callas [A love of Maria Callas] (in Italian). Liber Internazionale. Retrieved 24 November 2025.
• F. Tripeleff (1994). Odo e Riprando [Odo and Riprando] (in Italian) (2 ed.). Milano: La libreria di Babilonia. Retrieved 24 November 2025.
• F. Tripeleff (1994). Il castello di Pombia [The castle of Pombia] (in Italian). Milano: La libreria di Babilonia. Retrieved 24 November 2025.
• F. Tripeleff (1998). G. Lo Presti (ed.). Le avventure di prigionia del giovane tenente Magnani [The captivity adventures of young lieutenant Magnani]. Tra uomini. Storie erotiche (in Italian). Il dito e la luna. Retrieved 26 November 2025.

• F. Tripeleff (1996). Come mi hanno spennato l'uccello: la mia esperienza per il cantiere di narrativa gay "Penne d'uccello" [How they plucked my bird: my experience for the gay fiction project "Bird feathers"]. Millelire (in Italian). Roma: Stampa Alternativa. Retrieved 30 November 2025.
• Franco F. Ferrario (2019). Piccola biografia illustrata di mio nonno Quirino Ferrario (Novara 1870-1920) [A short illustrated biography of my grandfather Quirino Ferrario (Novara 1870-1920)] (PDF) (in Italian). Retrieved 26 November 2025.