After three years at the seminary in Seveso, Rodari received his teacher's diploma at the age of seventeen and began to teach elementary classes in rural schools of the Varese district.

He had an interest in music (three years of violin lessons) and literature (discovered the works of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Lenin and Trotsky which sharpened his critical sense).

Due to his precarious financial situation, he applied for work at the Casa del Fascio and was forced to join the National Fascist Party.

The story of Cipollino was popular enough to have a ballet staged in the Soviet Union in 1973, composed by Karen Khachaturian and choreographed by Henrich Mayorov.

Cipollino, or Little Onion, fights the unjust treatment of his fellow vegetable townfolk by the fruit royalty (Prince Lemon and the overly proud Tomato) in the garden kingdom.

The main theme is the "struggle of the underclass and the powerful, good versus evil" and the importance of friendship in the face of difficulties.