Rossi retired from MIT in 1970. From 1974 to 1980 he taught at the University of Palermo. In retirement he wrote a number of monographs, and a 1990 autobiography, Moments in the Life of a Scientist, which was published by Cambridge University Press. He died from a cardiac arrest at his home in Cambridge on 21 November 1993. He was survived by his wife, Nora, daughters Florence and Linda and son Frank. He was cremated, and his ashes are in the graveyard of the church of San Miniato al Monte, which overlooks Florence and the hill of Arcetri.