In early 1917, Jean Cocteau persuaded Picasso to break with Cubism and begin work on set designs for Serge Diaghilev's Russian Ballet. In February, they left Paris for Rome where he met Diaghilev and immediately began working on the ballet production Parade. It was here that Picasso met the ballerina Olga Koklova whom he was to marry the following year. Although he was only in Italy for a month, he managed to go travelling with Stravinsky, Massine and Cocteau to Florence, Pompeii and Naples when he was likely to have written this postcard.