[3][4] Vecchio graduated with a degree in theoretical physics as an undergraduate at Ghislieri College and the University of Pavia.
He obtained a PhD in astronomy from the University of Milan in 1996, where he worked with Bruno Bertotti, one of Erwin Schrödinger's last students.
[5] Working in collaboration with other scientists at University of Birmingham, Vecchio helped build and test instruments to detect gravitational waves.
After these were improved further as part of the Advanced LIGO upgrade, gravitational waves were detected.
These instruments allowed the properties of the sources from the gravitational wave signatures to be extracted.