[1] Educated at the Theresian Military Academy, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1883 but after successfully passing the entrance exam for the diplomatic corps in 1885, he was dispatched as attaché to Belgrade and then the following year to Bucharest.

[4] Considered rather cold and austere, he often left the impression in the eyes of his contemporaries of a "pedantic, tactless, and ill-humoured bureaucrat".

[5] Although impressed by the southern lifestyle, he lacked the ease and affable charm of his predecessor and thus failed to capture the sympathy of the Italians.

[7] Upon hearing of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914, he suffered a nervous breakdown.

Baron von Macchio arrived on 11 August to Rome and served in this capacity until the Italian declaration of war on 23 May 1915, although he never officially replaced him.