Marino Moretti came from a family of fishermen, but his mother was an elementary-school teacher, from the Marche region. Moretti was born on 18 July 1885 in Cesenatico. On many occasions he was to write of roots, intelligently and ironically, depicting himself as inferior. A good example can be found in a statement by Moretti in the newspaper Resto del Carlino on 30 October 1955:

Conterranei e concittadini, gente volgare e ostinata, lasciatemi tutti i vostri difetti, lasciate che mi fermentino dentro. Pur con questa voce melata, con questo sorriso d'angelo, con quest'aria dolcemente distratta, che piace ancora alle damigelle, io, non rinunzio a uno solo dei vostri difetti.

(Fellow countrymen and fellow citizens, crude and stubborn people, leave me all your faults, let them ferment in me. Even with this honeyed voice, this angelic smile, this slightly absent-minded look, still loved by the damsels, I will not renounce a single one...