in 1910 for medical reasons and began to work as a sculptor. Recalled into the Navy for the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–12, he served as a navigator in an armed cruiser patrolling in the area between Corsica and Palermo, Sicily. Recalled once again in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, he was appointed officer in command of the Southern Adriatic and Ionian Sea. He subsequently commanded an auxiliary cruiser, and in 1916–1919, he was based in Gibraltar, where he was the Italian naval officer assigned to co-operate with other allied navies protecting merchant vessels from U-boat attacks during their passage between the Straits of Gibraltar and the Italian coast. He was decorated and became an honorary member of the British Legion. His time in service and voyages were to have a lasting influence on his artwork: in 1940 he wrote "Romanticismo Velico" (Vallecchi, Firenze, 1940), a memory of his naval life from childhood to naval service in Africa and the Far East. First works During his leaves from naval service Romano found time to develop his sculpting skills. His personal style continued to evolve through his lifetime as he sought to master his craft. In 1905 and 1906 he made two portraits, including one of his brother Renzo. In 1906 Romano started work on his bronze monument, Hercules strangling with the Nemean lion, a piece was presented at the Biennale at Venice in 1910, then also at the Universal Exhibition in Rome in 1911. In 1930, a statue dedicated to the Patriot Manin was removed from Piazza Ognissanti in Florence, and in its place, by 1937, this work was set in place as a gift to the city of Florence in 1935 by Angelo Orvieto. The highly defined muscular tension and precarious equilibrium between the two antagonists recalls the Hellenistic sculpture: I lottatori (The Wrestlers) found at the Uffizi; however, by the 1930s, the sculptures would have been popular with the fascist authorities, since Mussolini self-identified with Hercules. The sculpture alluded to Mussolini's Italy subjugation and conquest of African countries and lands. Schooling Romano was traditionally schooled at his father's studio, learning the techniques of modelling clay. Whilst gaining a grounding in the technical elements of sculpting from his father, from the outset Romano's style was different. The development of his own personal style was aided by frequenting the studio of other sculptors, initially Giussepe Renda from Naples