Between 1887 and 1888 he joined an expedition organised by lieutenant-general , town commander of Massaua, to regain Italian positions lost to Ethiopia in Eritrea following the 1887 Battle of Dogali. In Eritrea he was in the retinue of the artillery captain Carlo Michelini. Also in the "firstborn colony", as Italian Eritrea was sometimes called, Fiorillo, and Francesco Nicotra together took 142 photographs documenting the Italian activity in the colony.