Alcorn’s love for Italy dates back in 1968, when he visited Settimo Rottaro, the agrarian village where his maternal grandparents were born. Through the discovery of his Italian heritage, he found both the inspiration and fertile ground he had been longing for. After having travelled through the country in the following two years, in june 1971 he moved with his family to Florence, Italy. For over a year he rented a modest studio with a view on the charming Piazza Santa Croce and abandoned the applied arts to pursue a career as a painter. When he decided to re-enter the world of publishing, he did so with renewed vigor and enthusiasm.

In 1972 Alcorn met Mario Spagnol, who in 1973 asked him to redesign one of Italy’s main publishing brands, Rizzoli. Alcorn accepted the challenge and started to revolutionize the graphic presentation and style of the paperback collection, in contrast to an Italian design tradition which was in essence classic and sober. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful working relation that would last for over a decade.

Another long term collaboration started in 1973 with the Italian film director Federico Fellini, who commissioned Alcorn to create the titles for several his movies, including Amarcord, Il Casanova, and E la nave va. According to Fellini, working with the American artist was “a tradition and even a kind of exorcism.”

In these years, his works included also illustrations, posters and cartoons of social commentary and political satire, where he expressed his disenchantment with the status quo. However, Alcorn didn’t stop taking commissions for advertising work, but he became highly selective and accepted to return to that sector only when a project was of particular interest to him, as in the case of the Italian Pepsi-Cola campaign and the campaign for the French yogurt brand, Mamie Nova.

In 1974 his son Thomas, a gifted photographer, died in a tragic accident at the age of seventeen. In the wake of this tragedy John Alcorn personally attended to the realization and design of a monograph featuring Thomas’ black and white photographs titled Thomas Alcorn, Fotografie (Rizzoli Editore, 1976). Soon after, he decided to go back to the Usa.