[1][2] In June 1911 he was appointed consul in Tripoli, where he helped prepare the Italian invasion of Libya, after which he returned to Trieste.
[3][4] He later held other consular posts abroad (and was a member of the International Control Commission in Albania in 1913) until the outbreak of the First World War, when he was transferred to the General Secretariat for Civil Affairs at the Supreme Command.
[5][6] After the end of the war, from January 1919 to December 1922, he was sent to Paris and was part of the Italian delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference.
[18] After the fall of the regime on 25 July 1943 he returned to politics and in August he was appointed Minister of Popular Culture of the first Badoglio Government, formally holding the post from 15 August 1943 to 24 February 1944, although in reality he ceased from his functions following the armistice of Cassibile, as he did not follow the king and government in their flight from Rome to Brindisi and retired to private life in Venice.
[19][20][21][22] He was however wanted by the Italian Social Republic and was forced to go into hiding in Nerviano, hosted by his friend Paolo Caccia Dominioni, until in December 1944 he was arrested along with Caccia Dominoni himself and General Luigi Trionfi and imprisoned initially in San Vittore and later in Lumezzane, where he remained until April 1945.