In 1930 he married Miss Nerina Varvaro and attended the naval warfare school, at the end of which he returned to sea as commander of the destroyer "Emanuele Pessagno" and then of the 5th Torped Boat Squadron, with flag on "Giuseppe Cesare Abba". He was then transferred to the office of the Chief of Staff of the Navy and in 1934 he was promoted to Captain, taking command of the heavy cruiser "Zara" from 16 September 1934 to 14 August 1935. At the outbreak of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War he was once again sent to the Red Sea, where he helped with the logistics organization, and then took command of the torpedo boat group based in Massawa. He was part of the retinue of Princess Yolanda of Savoy when she made a visit to Eritrea and the Indian Ocean on the hospital ship "Cesarea". In late 1938 he was sent to Spain as commander of the Italian naval mission, set up at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, which had the dual purpose of supporting the Corpo Truppe Volontarie and acting as a liaison with the Nationalist Navy of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. He fought personally in the battle of Catalonia, and was among the first to enter Barcelona in January 1939, earning another Silver Medal of Military Valor. As the war was ending in favor of the Nationalists, he performed diplomatic tasks by forging ties between the two countries, and after the war he was promoted to Rear Admiral and became naval attaché at the Italian Embassy in Madrid.