Zerbi attended primary school in Pisa before being relocated to Winterthur in Switzerland, and then moving again to The Grand Duchy of Baden which at this point was a not yet fully integrated part of the German Empire.

Returning to Italy, Zerbi gained employment in Legnano with Franco Tosi & C, a pioneering business applying the newly emerging metal based mechanical technologies.

His masterpiece is a 3000 HP 24 Cylinder behemoth of an engine powering the world record-breaking Macchi Castoldi MC72 seaplane that reached a breathtaking 709 Km/H just before WW2, with pilot officer Francesco Agello at the controls.

1939 was also the year in which he was awarded the honorific status of a “Grande Ufficiale della Corona d'Italia”,[1] in recognition by the state of his contribution to aeronautical progress.

Further public honours included his membership, and later the chairmanship, of the Technical Committee of the Ente nazionale italiano di unificazione (literally “National Unification Commission of Italy”).