Well, we managed to catch the vaporetto with our big box of plates. (Picture tomorrow!)
At the studio, there are printmakers from all parts of the world. At the moment, there is Melody from Mongolia, a Ben from Whitstable, England, Jenny from Ithaca, New York, Chris from Portugal, Christa from somewhere else in America, and we three Aussies………..and Gianfranco, our host.

Melody is printing very large etchings of ballerinas. Her mother was a Russian trained ballerina.

Jenny makes large woodcuts. She is a keen environmentalist.

We made more rubbings, cut up some of our new plate, and Nicki and I each started a dry point based on some of the photographs we have taken, while Daphne investigated the fonts available for letterpress printing and made a rough mock up of the book we intend to make. As our first excursion into printing together it worked very well.

Desperate for oats to have for breakfast, we have tested Daphne’s Italian to the limit. No one here seems to understand the concept of porridge. Our local Providore suggests espresso and biscotti is the breakfast of champions. His idea of porridge is that we cook it for ten minutes, then throw it out and go to the cafe for espresso and biscotti. Apparently what we want is ‘farina d’avina’ or perhaps
‘fiocchi d’avina.’ Or perhaps we forget about it and go to the cafe.