The eldest of three children, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis was born on 20 June 1915 in Cassano delle Murge, a small town in the region of Apulia, one of the poorest parts of Southern Italy.
Following in his father Giovanni steps, an engine driver in the Italian Railways, at the age of eighteen Franco became Italy's youngest Deputy Station Master at Trebisacce, in Calabria.