The grand ball at this event was, very conveniently for me, taking place at the same hotel where I was staying. This meant that we, me and my three room mates, were obviously the last people to arrive at the ball. 
You know when you think you have all the time in the world to get ready, you just need to get into a dress, do your hair and you’re more or less ready. And since it would literally only take us seconds to get where we needed to go we were in no hurry.
So yes, we arrived last, and missed out on the welcome drinks that were served in the grand hallway. Oh well, at least we were in time for the dancing which started very shortly after. 
Dancing of course was gloriously fun! Donald our dance master lead us through the dances, and I think we all did rather well actually. The fact that we had practiced many of the dances the night before certainly was a help. The only downside was that after a whole day walking around on cobbled streets my feet were not in the best condition for dancing!
Because I am really really bad at getting good pictures during balls I have had to borrow some of the pictures from others for this post. This shot of all the dancers in the ballroom was taken by the official photographer of the event, Franco Baracchi.
Margarita and Donald demonstrating a dance
Musicians
We danced, and then there was a little break during which a lady entertained us by singing some very beautiful songs. It was quite lovely. I, together with some of my friends, was standing next to the open window, enjoying a cool breeze after all that lively dancing, and while the lady was singing a small crowd gathered out on the street below the open windows. They were standing there, some even sat down, staring up at everyone dressed up in costumes and listening to the music floating out into the dark night outside. And when the song ended and we all applauded they joined in from out on the street!
Thilda, Sanolie and Eliane all looking splendid
The material for these dresses are just spectacular!
Jeanette, Isabel, Eliane and I sitting down for a rest between dances (photo Jean-Francois Rémy-Néris)
Isabel and Claire, beauties in white
Me. I must say that for once I was really pleased with the way my hair turned out! (photo Claire Violet Hanley)
After the break the dancing continued for a while longer until about 11pm when dinner was served. That’s when you notice you’re in southern Europe, nowhere in the more northern parts of Europe is dinner served at 11! During dinner I had quite a fright! Due to a misunderstanding between me and the person who infomremd me which dishes were alright for me to eat I was painfully close to getting a mouthful of tuna! For a since birth strickt vegetarian this kind of thing is terrifying, to say the least!
Lots of food! It all looked very pretty! (photo Eliane Caramanna)
With dinner over the ball was officially over, but we were allowed to stay and since we didn’t have far to go to get home for the night anyway we were hanging around there for a while, just enjoying spending time with all the nice people.
Hanging around out on the balcony after dinner, talking and laughing and looking down on the people on the street below (photo Jeanette Klok-Heller)
It was a most delightful ball, the venue was, as all the venues I have ever seen down in Italy, spectacular and gorgeous, and I just really had a lot of fun! My friend Isabel and I were laughing and giggling like crazy most of the evening. We none of us drink, but I’m sure there were those there that evening who thought we’d had a glass or two too many of something (when in truth all we had drunk was water and lemonade) considering how we were giggling and dancing around very enthusiastically. Someone refered to us as “two of Mr Bennets daughters”, and we couldn’t quite decide whether to take that as a compliment or not. It would be a compliment like few others if the reference was to Jane or Elizabeth, but I fear we were more like Kitty and Lydia that evening and if that was the meaning of the comment I confess I don’t feel quite as flattered by it. However that was we had a good time at least, and that’s what counts I think. 
This is what the ballroom looked like without all the people in it. It was very practical since we were staying in the same hotel, I could just pop back in the next morning to get a picture while on my way to breakfast.
Another gorgeous ceiling!