The aircraft looks like the Italian Caproni Ca.164 bi-plane that was built just prior to WWII, the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica Italiana) had around 280. Intended for training it was found to be unsuitable in that roll and used for “liason” between bomber units, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.164 for full text.

For some model examples see http://www.superaereo.com/ca100.html

The man in uniform is wearing “dress uniform” of the Italian Royal Air Force and his rank is a sergeant. He’s not wearing any “wings” [pilots or observers] so either wasn’t a pilot/observer or hadn’t completed training.