By Andy Omel

Total visual saturation. I have to admit I’m near the point of overload. I’ve been to many European capitals, but have never experienced a city so packed with beauty—typographic, architectural, cultural. Just walking the streets would be design inspiration enough. But these workshops have pushed me even closer to that saturation point.

While James Clough was bursting with passionate enthusiasm, Mauro Zennaro serenaded us with a more subdued—but no less passionate—presentation of type history. He began with a striking slide showing graffiti from 1977 obliterating a gorgeous typographic specimen from 1475 on the Ponte Sisto. The original message was from the pope, while the message of protest was in support of legalized abortion. Mauro powerfully declared the defacing of the pope’s message to be a “natural palimpsest,” similar to the ancient technique of reusing a tablet by destroying the beautiful characters that were previously inscribed. Very smart, very powerful.

He continued his presentation with equally compelling slides for an information-packed several hours. Highlights for me included (among other things) gorgeous samples of uncial scripts, a page from the first known calligraphy handbook (from 1522), and Mauro’s own digital recreation of a script in the Carolingian style (Farfa Regular). And, of course, we finally learned the secret of how the minuscule “i” got its dot! (Sorry, the secret is far too privileged to be divulged in a blog post.) Mauro finished his presentation with a tour of gorgeous type samples in the Piazza del Popolo and in front of the Ara Pacis Museum. I’m looking forward to the continuation of Mauro’s tour tomorrow.

And just as my head was about to explode from the visual overload, I was saved by gelato. Il Gelato di Claudio Torcè in Piazza Monte D’Oro has about 100 flavors in all, and the selection was bizarre and incredibly delicious. I settled on a trio of brie with berries, pistachio white sesame, and (yes!) gorgonzola. Carl and I immediately went back for seconds. And I have a feeling I’ll find my way back there again soon.

Exchange of the day:

Mauro: “If you wanted enough parchment for a book, you had to kill 100 animals.”
Steve: “If you wanted a notepad, you just had to kill a hamster.”