In 1931 he enrolled the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and later he moved to France and studied under Gustave Lefebvre, Alexandre Moret and Étienne Drioton.

Donadoni then moved to Egypt, and since 1935 he participated to an excavation campaign at Antinoopolis led by his teacher, the archaeologist Evaristo Breccia.

During the war, from 1938 to 1940, he joined the excavation of the Middle Kingdom temple of Medinet Madi led by Achille Vogliano.

[2]: 19 In the late 1950s Donadoni was invited to join the team of archaeologists that operated the relocation of the Abu Simbel temples in Nubia due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the subsequent formation of Lake Nasser.

He also excavated the 26th Dynasty tomb TT27 at Thebes which belonged to Shoshenq, chief steward of the Divine Adoratrice Ankhnesneferibre.