Stilo & Stile x Radius Settimo Desiderio: A Poetic Italian Fountain Pen Review

Introduction

Every autumn, the Italian retailer Stilo & Stile, a shop and online store based in Rome, releases a limited edition fountain pen for Fountain Pen Day. This year’s offering is a collaboration with Radius, the brand produced by the team behind Leonardo, and it is called the Settimo Desiderio. Settimo means seventh in Italian, and Desiderio carries a poetic weight: the word derives from Latin, referring to longing or desire, the kind of yearning you feel looking up at stars you cannot reach. That imagery is baked right into the pen itself, and after spending time with it, the name fits.

The pen arrives in the standard Radius box, with warranty information and a short history of the brand tucked around it. Radius is an Italian brand that originally produced fountain pens for roughly 20 years, from the mid-1930s into the mid-1950s. The Leonardo-owned relaunch began producing pens under the Radius name about five years ago, drawing on those historical designs. The Settimo Desiderio continues that tradition with a look that is easy to fall for.

Design and Materials

The body is made from a deep blue Italian resin mixed with white flecks, and the effect genuinely evokes a cloudless night sky. Up close, the flecks are small and scattered, with swirls and patterning that give the barrel an interesting, ever-shifting look depending on the light. Of everything about this pen, the resin is the element I care for most; it simply looks sharp.

The top of the cap comes to a rounded point, and the clip, like the other elements, follows the original historical design. It is not the most exciting clip to look at, but it is functional and easily accommodates materials of varying thicknesses. The cap tapers until about the last inch, where it straightens out. On the back of the cap, production units will be engraved with Radius, Stilo & Stile, and the individual pen number.

This is a limited edition of 224 units, the 24 reflecting the year 2024, continuing the pattern from last year’s 223-unit Fountain Pen Day model. Just past the cap band, the cap angles down slightly, which minimizes the step down to the barrel. The barrel runs straight for about two inches before tapering slowly to a rounded point, a bit smaller than the one at the top of the cap.

Nib and Writing Performance

The cap twists off with a single rotation, revealing a number six stainless steel JoWo nib. It is available in extra fine, fine, medium, and broad, plus a 1.1 stub, and also in a couple of flex versions: flex extra fine and flex fine. The nib is nicely engraved with the company name along with “Superior,” a nod to the original Radius models, and 1934, the year the brand was originally founded.

My review unit came with the medium, and it performs well. There is a little bit of feedback, but it is fairly smooth. You will not get much line variation, though the ink flow is decent. Reverse writing lays down an extra-fine line that is a touch sharp, and the feed had no trouble keeping up during fast writing.

The section begins with a slight angle and rises slowly until the threads meet the barrel with only a negligible step. The pen is a cartridge-converter design, accepting standard international cartridges, and a converter is included in the box. One caution: with metal inside the housing, eye-droopper conversion would not be advisable.

Size, Balance, and Everyday Handling

This is a medium-size pen and is plenty long enough to use unposted. The cap does post, and it posts securely. I find it well balanced, and posting does not throw off that balance or back-weight the pen, so you can comfortably use it either way.

Compared with other Radius models I have handled, including the Cometa and the Prisma, plus pens like a Leonardo Momento Zero and a Sailor Pro Gear, the Settimo Desiderio sits comfortably in familiar mid-size territory. If you already use mid-size Italian pens, it should feel immediately at home.

Pricing and Availability

The Settimo Desiderio is available exclusively through the Stilo & Stile website, going on sale October 31st at 6:00 p.m. Italy time, which is noon Eastern for US buyers. The price is 150 euros, roughly 160 dollars depending on the exchange rate. There is also a Fountain Pen Day discount code, FPD2024, valid through 11:59 p.m. Italy time on Sunday, November 3rd, which brings the cost down to about 145 dollars.

Even without the discount, this feels like a reasonable price for what you receive. With it, the value case becomes even easier to make. One practical note: Stilo & Stile’s limited editions tend not to stay available for long. If this pen interests you, acting sooner rather than later is wise, because once they are gone, they are gone.

Ink Pairing and Writing Sample

For the writing sample, I paired the medium nib with Dominant Industry’s Milky Way Blue, an ink that matches the celestial theme beautifully. It is a deep blue with red sheen and a bluish-purple shimmer, and it sits alongside heavy sheening inks like Diamine’s deep blues, KWZ Sheen Machine, and Vinta Blue Blood. Shaking the 25 ml Pearl-series bottle brings the shimmer back to life after it settles.

The combination of the deep blue resin, white flecks, and a shimmering dark blue ink on the page makes for a very cohesive look. Whether you choose the same ink or something plainer, the nib handles a range of inks well, with that gentle feedback adding just enough character to keep writing sessions interesting.

Conclusion

The Stilo & Stile x Radius Settimo Desiderio is a thoughtful, poetic limited edition that delivers where it counts: striking deep blue resin, a reliable JoWo steel nib in a wide range of sizes, comfortable unposted balance, and honest pricing. The main caution is availability, both in the sense of the 224-unit edition size and the tendency of Stilo & Stile special editions to sell out quickly. If the night-sky look speaks to you, it is worth securing one while the Fountain Pen Day discount is still active.