 He then joined Spezia from 1999 to 2002, winning Serie C2 at his first season and narrowly missing promotion to Serie B in 2002.After an eighth place with Vicenza in their 2002–03 Serie B campaign, he joined Atalanta and led them to promotion to Serie A.He stayed at Atalanta for the 2003–04 campaign too, but was sacked soon after the season start.