Delta Profili, Stipula 22/Ventidue, Marlen Vienna and Visconti Opera

A year ago I didn’t own one single Italian fountain pen. This is rather odd since I’ve had a soft spot for Italy and Italian design for very long. The love to Italy began already when I was four years old and my parents and I was in  Italy. I remember quite a lot from that trip and have been hooked ever since.

I hadn’t really given any thought to Italian pens and was still mostly familiar and interested in the classic big brands like  Pelikan, Montblanc, Lamy and  Sheaffer and a few small brands as Bexley and Conway Stewart (small today – big in the past).  Then I happened to find a big sale with some of the big Italian brands at the GBA pens (a highly recommended UK based pen company – no aff). I bought the fire engine red Aurora Talentum, then found a couple of Deltas – all very good deals.  I fell instantly in love with the Talentum and took the Delta Profilis to my heart. The design and writing performance of the three were superb and original and I wanted more of the Italian pen feeling, so I started to look for more Italian pens. Now the Italians are in majority among my pens;  Aurora, Delta, Visconti, Marlen, Stipula…I have yet to try Omas and want a new Montegrappa Nero Uno some day. There is something about Italian pen design – it often succeeds combining modern, classic, original and futuristic elements in the very same pen in a way that is extraordinary. They have their fair share of overloaded bling pens as well, but one doesn’t find a broader spectrum of original and beautiful pens anywhere else. Unfortunately they have a reputation for bad quality control, but I am not sure how accurate that reputation is. Compared to Pilot and Sailor – yes, but almost any other company is defeated by them if they were to be compared. Even if bad QC is a negative feature I must admit that original and clever design (as long as they fix the problem) makes me so happy that I tend to be more forgiving about it than I usually am…