In 1929, after receiving a state scholarship from Hil Mosi,Robert Elsie (2010) "Zef Kolombi" in Historical Dictionary of Albania. Scarecrow Press. p. 237. Kolombi departed again for Italy, where he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome.Sulejman Dashi, "Zef Kolombi" in The Dictionary of Art, Vol. 18, ed. Jane Turner, (Macmillan Publishers, 1996), 207. Upon completion, he returned to Albania and was appointed drawing teacher in Elbasan, where he spent the next ten years. In 1936, he married and had one son, Julian, and by a second marriage had another son Gjovalinin, while continuing to paint and carry out the tasks of a teacher.
