Spadolini was born in Florence in 1925. In his youth he worked in a public library. Spadolini was a republican and fascist-aligned activist, and wrote for the periodical "Italia e Civiltà" ("Italy and Civilisation"), he was close to Giovanni Gentile, and a number of times Spadolini expressed his anti-Masonry, anti-liberalism and anti-semitism views. In 1944, during the Italian Civil War, he joined the Italian Social Republic.