 A Fulbright Grant during 1963-64 made possible a year’s study and independent work in Florence, Italy.Seeing first-hand the work of artists Piero della Francesca and the Venetians Giorgione and Veronese, strongly influenced Ciarrocchi’s visual thinking.Living in Fiesole, above Florence, he began to draw and paint from nature, stressing the abstract figuration of the natural forms.