In a world where the younger generations are less and less acquainted with pen and paper, and more and more in love with keyboards, talking about the pleasure of writing with a a good fountain pen may seem old fashioned. Call me old fashioned, then, because that’s what I’m going to do. When I was in Elementary school, we all wrote with fountain pens, usually emblazoned with our favorite cartoon characters -I had a Tweetie one.

Italian children of the mid-80s knew how to recognize a good fountain pen when they got their mitts on one. In my class we all had a favorite, the sturdy, trustworthy “Auretta,” Aurora’s colorful, cheap-and-cheerful proposal for students: slightly more expensive than those cartoon characters one we collected, Aurettas were on a total different planet when it came to quality. I loved mine: it was red and black, with a small quill that didn’t mind one bit I was left handed.