After the war, he finished school and started to study medicine in Genoa. He made contact with the Republicans of Mazzini and started to write for "Il Dovere" (The Duty). In 1867 he returned to Castrogiovanni due to the death of his father, but immediately left to join Garibaldi again in his new campaign to capture Rome. He arrived too late when the Battle of Mentana – in which Garibaldi was defeated by Papal troops and a French auxiliary force – had already ended.