Massawa (or as Italians say Massaua ) is certainly a very good explanation.
I was born in Italy, am fluent Italian speaker and am experienced in old text but I've never came across any special way to write a double ss in Italian ( the use of F instead of S is medieval to maximum 18th century and common throughout Europe ).
The U looking like an n is very common, I write it like that too.
Regardless, Massaua complies with everything else indeed.
It certainly says " Nicola de Maria ufficiale dell'Esercito" ( and he uses here again the F instead )
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