Bartoli was born at Turin. His journalistic career started in 1933 when he joined the Corriere della Sera. The next year the papers sent him to report from China. Then, "due to the compication of the political situation" he was replaced in China, after a brief hiatus, by Luigi Barzini Jr.. Instead Bartoli was now sent to report on the Italo-Abyssinian War. After the conclusion of that war, he worked as a war correspondent on a succession of assignments, notably in central Africa, till 1943. Perhaps his greatest scoop concerned a domestic matter, however. On 24 July 1943, the Grand Council met in the anteroom of Mussolini's office in the Palazzo Venezia. For the first time in the history of the Grand Council, neither the leader's "musketeers", nor any detachment of the "M" battalions were present. Mussolini did not want a stenographer, so no minutes were taken. A remarkably detailed report of the momentous meeting, which had ended in Mussolini's removal from power, was nevertheless made public on the front page of the Corriere della Sera a few days later. The name at the foot of the report was that of Domenico Bartoli. It later became clear that Bartoli had for many years enjoyed access to high level contacts among the monarchist and military elements in the Italian establishment, and he must have used these to prepare his report. Commentators were not all slow to point out the irony that a journalist who for twenty years been trusted by senior movers and shakers of fascist Italy was now the first to report the leader's downfall.