[1] Born in Calolziocorte, Italy, after studying at Liceo Alessandro Manzoni high school in Lecco with Giovanni Ticozzi, he graduated in agriculture at the University of Milan in 1950 and specialized in plant breeding and microtechnique at the Department of Botany and Agronomy at Iowa State University, in the United States, graduating in 1955.
Brandolini was the research director of the "Istituto di ricerche orticole" (Horticultural research institute)[2] and of the "Lombardy center for horto-flori-fruit-crops" in Minoprio (Italy) from 1964 to 1971 and of the Centro di ricerca fitotecnica in Bergamo from 1976 to 1983, developing and producing special maize hybrids in Europe and Latin America, and from 1983 to 1993 work as general director of the Istituto agronomico per l'oltremare in Florence, managing the agricultural development projects of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[6] Under the supervision of his teacher Luigi Fenaroli, his early studies were in the field of to the collection, characterization, and breeding of agricultural crops, and the biodiversity in Italy and Southern Europe.
He organized technical assistance and coordinated hybrid maize introduction programs in Spain, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and other Southern European countries.
[7] With Jean Aimé Baumann and Gonzalo Avila of the Geneva-based "Fundación Simón I. Patiño", he established the Centre ecofitogenetico and the "Seed Center" in Pairumani, Bolivia, in order to study agricultural genetic resources and the production of improved varieties of Andes ridge and tropical crops.