Born in Crema, Lombardy, Cervi started his career as a journalist in 1945 collaborating with the newspaper Corriere della Sera as a foreign reporter.
[1] In 1965 he debuted as an essayist with Storia della guerra di Grecia ("History of the War of Greece"), with references to his experience as an infantry officer in Greece during the Second World War.
[2] After about thirty years of collaboration, in 1974 he left the Corriere della Sera to co-found, with Indro Montanelli, the newspaper il Giornale, in which he was columnist and then also deputy editor.
[1][2] With Montanelli, Cervi co-wrote 13 volumes of Storia d'Italia and the historical essay Milano ventesimo secolo.
[1] He also continued his activity as an essayist, and his last work was the book Sprecopoli, he co-wrote with Nicola Porro in 2007.