Guazzaloca left school when he was 14 and started working in his father's butcher's shop, opening one of his own in 1965.

[2] On 19 December 1998, Guazzaloca announced his independent candidacy for the office of mayor of Bologna as part of the centre-right coalition, receiving support from the Pole for Freedoms.

[3] In June 1999, in an upset, Guazzaloca won the runoff against The Olive Tree candidate and became the first right-wing mayor of Bologna since the end of World War II.

Guazzaloca tried to run for a second term in 2004 but was defeated in the first round by The Union candidate Sergio Cofferati.

[7] He died in the Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic in Bologna on 26 April 2017, at the age of 73, after having fought for years against multiple myeloma.