Gandolfo was commissioned into the Royal Italian Army as a second lieutenant in 1885, after graduating from the Military Academy of Modena.

In 1916 he obtained the Medal of Military Valor and promotion to major general with the command of the Pisa Brigade.

At his residence in Oneglia, the first regulation of the Voluntary Militia for National Security (MVSN) (the paramilitary wing of the PNF) was drawn up together with Italo Balbo, Dino Perrone Compagni and Ulisse Igliori [it].

He was a Freemason, and was part of the "Giuseppe Mazzini" lodge of Sanremo, "but resigned because it was so republican that the presence of military personnel was impossible".

[2] Gandolfo was married to Maria Martini in 1894, he was widowed the following year, and in 1905 he remarried with Teresa Manfredi.