Salvatore joined the military service reluctantly only to marry the girl he loved. When he had to leave the island which he had never left before, to be a sailor in the navy of King Victor Emmanuel, he wept like a child. Living on a battleship with strangers without any touch of friendship made his life miserable. He was constantly missing his little white cottage among the vines and the little island he loved so well.
 
He was all alone in the noisy friendless cities he had to visit as part of his job. He also realised that the volcanic islands of Ischia and Vesuvius which he used to look at every evening and at dawn when he was home were “as much part of him as his hands and his feet”, a feeling that he had never had before. 
 
As Salvatore was “Dreadfully homesick”, he badly wanted to come back home. The hardest part of it was “to be parted from the girl he loved with all his passionate young heart”. He also wrote her letters telling her about his agony of staying away from her and how much he wanted to be back. 
 
Salvatore was sent to many places including Spezzia, Venice, Bari and China as part of his service. In China, he fell ill seriously and was in hospital for months. With the mental toughness he has got, he managed to recover. But it was learnt that Salvatore had some form of rheumatism which made him unfit for further service.
 
What made him quit and come back?
It was Salvatore’s rheumatism which made him unfit for further military service. In fact, the doctors told him that he would be unable to work any longer. This is why Salvatore had to quit and return to home. And Salvatore was happy that he had to, as he would finally be able to come home and meet his near and dear ones.