Like Columbus, Italy continues to navigate through some uncharted waters. The Italian sovereign debt market faced a major test this morning with the Italian Treasury tapping the five-year bucket for around +€3b and issuing +€2.5b of a new 10-year product. This was never going to be the ideal time for Italy to come to the market amidst post-general election uncertainty. Despite everything, the auctions outcome is being viewed as an early test of market risk appetite following last weekend's inconclusive election results.