He entered the Seminary of Bologna in 1934, attended it for a short time, but realized that he was not called to the priesthood. He graduated in 1943 from the Agricultural Technical Institute of Imola, enrolled in the Faculty of Agriculture and graduated in February 1948. Educated in a deeply Catholic family, he participates in the life of the ACLI and the union but, in particular, lives with intensity the his experience in FUCI. From his peasant background, he grasps the importance of being competent in agriculture, he wants to make a synthesis between theory and practice, difficult for those who study the problems of the earth.

He attends the university with great commitment and diligence. The timetables of trains and lessons impose on him the burden of having to be 'out of the house', faced with the needs of study and food. But Fanin, precisely from the difficulties and inconveniences, draws the strength to commit himself fully. At the age of 24, despite the vicissitudes of the war, he is already a graduate: the first graduate of the FUCI of Persiceto, which he wanted and founded. Pippo is proud of his FUCI of the Province «so different and more beautiful than those of the city», as he repeats himself.

In mid-July 1948, he began his work as provincial secretary of Acli Terra in Bologna and as a member of the Board of Agricultural Technicians, in the Free Trade Unions. In September, he begins negotiations with the Farmers' Association. With the application of his pact, the agricultural worker is conditioned by the result of production, as the remuneration would no longer consist of a fixed salary, but of products proportionate to the farm's income. By now everything is ready and his pact must be tested.

He prepares the presentation for the Congress of Molinella, on November 7... Probably, precisely because of these activities of his, on November 4, after visiting his fiancée Lidia Risi, he is attacked by three Communists who beat him to death.

He died at the age of 24, a martyr of justice and faith. Given the climate of violence present in Emilia, he had been advised to bring a weapon with him for personal defense; but he used to show off his rosary: ​​that was his "weapon".