My legs are trembling and I feel 
butterflies in my stomach whenever I look at this beautiful pen. 
Is this normal? 
What do you think of this pen and Auroras in general? What’s your opinion about Auroloid, Aurora nibs, the Aurora piston mechanism? Oh, and what about those fabulous black sections? 
Oh Peter you do have the pen virus really badly and I do know the feeling. I just got my first Montegrappa Elmo in purple that put me on the floor with faint as well. The broad nib is so wet and smooth…must be an Italian thing so I think a medium might be better. But what a pen your Aurora is and I hope it writes well too. I am going to try and put a picture on here of mine too. Using Pilot Irushizuku Murasaki Shikibu (Japanese Beauty Berry) and I love that ink. What are you using in your 888?
Peter I forgot to say that I have no experience with Italian pens and not an Aurora. My Montegrappa is my first step into Italy. So far I am impressed. That black section looks great and large enough too. Because I am so far away in New Zealand I never order from Italy as I have heard some nib quality problems with Visconti but not the others. I don’t have anyone here to work on these things. I hope to be on FPC more but have been challenged of late with health issues and am slowly returning to the land of the living. I love your posts. Barbara
Thanks Urban. I was worried about the Italian world but the pen is great and the nib wonderful so all good. I know the Estie has followers but i am living in the past with a Vintage J Series Esterbrook and just seem to not relate to the new ones. In fact I am trying so hard not to buy more pens or fall for the Black Friday Sales but my love of the Platinum 3776 and wanting a music nib and Pen Chalet doing such a great sale on the pen with a bit of ink I just fell over. It all came under my Customs allotment and so the new 3776 Carnelian will be here in about a week or ten days. I think I will be thrilled but will have to let everyone know later. B
Oh, another 3776. 
I’m eyeing the green one. Some day … Unfortunately, customs is super thorough (it’s Germany after all) and the limit is ridiculously low at 22€ including shipping. So basically everything gets taxed. 
Maybe that’s a good thing in the end. I should use the stuff I own instead of buying all the time anyway.
@BarbaraNZ Your pen looks gorgeous!! 
I’m happy that you like the nib. I don’t have experience with Montegrappas unfortunately but I’ve been keeping an eye on them because they have some really nice pens. Have you considered other Montegrappa models? I have a few Italian pens, in general they are spectacular, pleasing to the eyes and made from nice materials. I haven’t got to try many Viscontis. My Visconti Van Gogh has a quite problematic nib that I’ve tried to get fixed but still not happy about the performance of the feed, it skips. I also have 2 Leonardos. Their nibs are German but this Italian company adjusts the nibs to perfection. What I would like to buy is some of those nice Stipulas. As for Auroras: Except their flex nibs Aurora nibs are stiff but smooth and extremely pleasant to use. It’s hard to tell but I think my favourite nib is an Aurora fine in my Nettuno Docet (basically a limited edition Aurora 88). Unfortunately the Aurora 888 Nettuno on the picture is not mine. If it were, I would use a non-turquoise, saturated medium blue or maybe Graf von Faber-Castell Burned Orange or even more so: some kind of rich red.
I see these 3776s are dangerous They are like tribbles from Star Trek: one shows up, looks cute, a minute later you have a bunch of them in every corner of your house 
Peter the 3776 for me is more than dangerous it is like a drug and I have ten of them with the Carnelian on its way! I was NOT going to buy one more 3776 and because I wanted a music nib, which is more money, the totals always went over my customs threshold so I gave up. Then Pen Chalet did this Black Friday discount and lowered the price on the pen with the music nib so out of the boat I fell! Surely this will end this madness. But Conklin is coming out with two new pens in January and the Duragraph Fire in Black and Rose Red is calling out to me. More on Italian pens on the next reply. B
I think I was taking a chance on the Montegrappa till I realized that Visconti might be the one that has nib problems and someone said they loved doing art pens but were a bit slack with their nib performance and it appears you have had that experience. If Montegrappa would come out with a nice Green pen I might consider it, but in a medium this time. I was also told later that the Broad with Montegrappa was quite wide and so a medium next time might be better…I did see that Montegrappa has something coming out called Black Calla LIly or something like that. A black and green combo that looks rather nice. I could see the Pelikan 4001 Dark Green in that which is such a lovely ink.
I have seen that Graf von Faber Castell Burned Orange ink and that would be tempting. I like your ink suggestions. Dare I say that my pen and ink buying is such a worry at the moment…I might need a break until you put something else on here I cannot resist. Hopefully I cannot get it here! 
B
I can’t believe this, today it’s only €504…
