On the 9th of February 1909 he left with the steamer ship called Duca di Genova going to Italy, leaving back home a wife and a daughter of only a few months old. He travelled with a false name. The ship journey was very though, due to both the sea sickness he suffred from and for the separtion from his loved ones.
He travelled in first class, cabin 10. Once he arrived at Genova on the 21st Februart, he hopped on the first train to Rome. Even if he was working in disguise, his mission was already famous. The popularity of his mission is a consequence of an article pubblished by the New York Herald on the 20 February 1909. In this article Bingham shared the information about the tenant Joe Petrosino who was travelling to Sicily with the sole perpose of obtaining information about italian criminals living in the USA. The mission wasnt anymore know only to the secret services, but was now of public knowledge. This influenced the development of the investigation in a negative way.
The news was also publicised by a parisian newspaper: the italian criminals were aware of this issue and had strong relations with the New York criminals