Fermi was born in Rome and went to a local grammar school. He was very good at maths and science and won a prize from Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He went to the University of Pisa where he studied physics. In 1923 he was given a scholarship from the Italian government and went to Göttingen for more study. He was given a Rockefeller scholarship in 1924 and studied in Leyden. He came back to Italy at the end of 1924 and became Lecturer in Mathematical Physics and Mechanics at the University of Florence.