His parents, who were living in Florence when Rome was liberated, tried to see Edgardo. They wanted to persuade him to come home. He wanted to leave the country. Here, (from The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara by David L. Kertzer) is Edgardo's description of a near-encounter with his father:

On October 22, 1870, at ten at night, accompanied by one of the friars, both of us dressed in street clothes, we made our way through the convent garden in order to elude the surveillance of the guards who were stationed there. We went to the central train station, where, my mentor told me, he spotted my father. Deeply frightened, I begged in my heart that I be spared the encounter, and in fact my prayer was answered and, without any incident, I got on the train for Bologna. (Page 241)

His plan was not to return to his hometown, however. Bologna was just a stopping point. Edgardo's plan was to take the train to an Austrian convent. His plan was never to return to his family.

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