Born in Camogli, the son of the conductor Ferruccio, Scaglia started his career as a journalist, collaborating with the newspapers Il Messaggero, L'Unità, Il Tempo, Il Piccolo and Avanti!, among others.[1] For over forty years he worked for RAI, notably being president of Rai Cinema between 2004 and 2013.[1][2]
Scaglia was also a novelist, and among other things he wrote a cycle of novels about the adventures of a Franciscan friar, Padre Matteo (Father Matthew); the first novel of the series, Il custode dell'acqua, earned him the Campiello prize in 2002.[1][2] During his varied career, he was also an essayist, an author of fables, a translator, a producer, a documentarist, a playwright, as well as a radio and television writer.[2]
