Born in Pula-Croatia to Piedmontese parents, Arpino moved to Bra in the Province of Cuneo. Here he married Caterina Brero before moving to Turin, where he would remain for the rest of his life.
He graduated in 1951 with a thesis on the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin and the following year made his literary debut with the novel Sei stato felice, Giovanni, published by Einaudi.
He took up sports journalism, writing for the daily papers La Stampa and Il Giornale; together with Gianni Brera at the La Gazzetta dello Sport he brought a new literary quality to Italian writing on sport. His most important work in this line was the 1977 football novel Azzurro tenebra. In Italy he got to know the Argentinian writer and fellow sports enthusiast Osvaldo Soriano.

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