((8))These Are Some of my Favorite Things((8)) - iamq and M in Umbria
Jul 13th, 2011, 08:58 AM
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Ten years ago, we visited a ceramics shop in Orvieto and saw several pieces we thought were gorgeous, and well priced. But we didn't buy because we'd just gotten to Orvieto. The next day the shop was closed and then we were off to pick up my sister at FCO, before heading to the Amalfi Coast and Rome.
We have kicked ourselves multiple times ever since. (Also, we've learned that when we are both so taken with something, we will BUY IT and worry about getting it home later!) Of course we've seen some lovely Italian ceramics back in the US, but WHOA is it expen$ive.
We have kicked ourselves multiple times ever since. (Also, we've learned that when we are both so taken with something, we will BUY IT and worry about getting it home later!) Of course we've seen some lovely Italian ceramics back in the US, but WHOA is it expen$ive.
Jul 13th, 2011, 12:15 PM
#63
Grazie, Jean. lucky you.
there have been quite a few threads about Umbria recently describing so many lovely places , it's difficult to choose between them.
I will add Lago Trasimeno to my wish list.
there have been quite a few threads about Umbria recently describing so many lovely places , it's difficult to choose between them.
I will add Lago Trasimeno to my wish list.
Jul 13th, 2011, 12:51 PM
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We just got back from Rome - not first time and loved it again!! But I now know I would love to do the countryside if I'm lucky enough to come back to Italy. I have spent time in Tuscany and loved it and this will make me really consider Unbria. Great report!
Jul 14th, 2011, 06:17 AM
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uhoh, M and I learned that lesson on this trip. See it, want it, can afford it...BUY IT!
Jean WILMOTE, I appreciate your comments on Lake Trasimeno. With so few days and so many items of greater priority for us, it never made it to our list. Maybe next time.
marigross, Lucky you that you got to see Spello.
annhig, Are you plannig a trip to Umbria? Lots's of Umbrian reports lately.
Thanks for the comments. I will be back later to wrap this baby up and post some more photos.
Jean WILMOTE, I appreciate your comments on Lake Trasimeno. With so few days and so many items of greater priority for us, it never made it to our list. Maybe next time.
marigross, Lucky you that you got to see Spello.
annhig, Are you plannig a trip to Umbria? Lots's of Umbrian reports lately.
Thanks for the comments. I will be back later to wrap this baby up and post some more photos.
Jul 14th, 2011, 11:14 AM
#67
annhig, Are you plannig a trip to Umbria? Lots's of Umbrian reports lately.≥≥
iamq - I'm always planning a trip. Brittany in August, eastern Germany in october. Meanwhile i plot how to get back to Orbetello [south-west Tuscany] where I did an Italian course earlier this year - which might fit with a tour of Umbria, possibly.
iamq - I'm always planning a trip. Brittany in August, eastern Germany in october. Meanwhile i plot how to get back to Orbetello [south-west Tuscany] where I did an Italian course earlier this year - which might fit with a tour of Umbria, possibly.
Jul 14th, 2011, 07:05 PM
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annhig, try to at least work in Orvieto in your plot.
Bottega Vignoli and Faenza
In San Francisco there is an importer of Italian pottery, mainly from Deruta. It is is sort of an institution and over the years I have shopped there for myself and for others. Biordi Art Imports is in North Beach, so a shopping excursion there followed by lunch or dinner or hang out at City Lights Books makes for a nice day.
About 7 or 8 years ago while on a look see/walk by with M I noticed some really amazing looking vases, pots, bowls and wall mounts that were decidedly modern and didn't fit the traditonal Deruta/Italian Majolica design motifs. They stuck out like a sore thumb and wonderful sore thumb at that.
Much to M's chagrin I got sucked in and started talking to the owner about these new pieces. He said they are Vignoli and are the work of two sisters in the town of Faenza. Saura and Ivana Vignoli had been working for years in Faenza and Biordi had just started importing their work. Upon until very recently it was the only place in the US one could buy it. The pieces had a copper sheen to the glazes and the design work was amazingly intricate and unique. There was even a sardine design! I immediately fell in love with their work and bought something that day. I have continued to purchase their work when my budget permits or when I need a retail therapy fix.
Once home I googled Faenza and Vignoli and started learning more. Faenza is arguably the capital of ceramics in Italy. There is an amazing museum there and a centuries old tradition of pottery making that continues to this day. The term "Faience" ware refers to pottery where a tin oxide glaze is used on white earthen ware pottery. It originated in Faenza, but the French started doing their own take on it too. The Vignoli Sisters are very much part of this tradition, but they are using copper oxides and doing strange things in the firing process that give unusual and spectacular results.
Here are links to Biordi, the museum and to Bottega Vignoli.
Biordi.com
http://www.micfaenza.org/
http://www.ceramichevignoli.com/
I knew some day I would visit their studio. The thought of buying something from their own studio that probably would never see the light of day in the US made me very happy. Sooooo, when the trip to Italy got firmed up I contacted the owner at Biordi and he gave me the Vignoli's email and phone number. I contacted them and told them about how we'd be in Italy in June and we wanted to come by and see their studio, etc. "We are here and waiting for you" was the response I got back. We set a date and time. Yay!
The drive from Spello to Faenza takes about three hours and made for a long day. It was a nice drive, mostly on E45 through the mountains. The road was not in the best shape and there was lots of road and tunnel work going on so that slowed things down a bit. Once you start to come down out of the mountains you are in Emilia Romagna and soon the terrain becomes flat and plain-like. It was very cool to see the terrain change so much.
The Vignoli's studio and showroom is located on the outskirts of town and when we pulled up they were indeed waiting for us! Ivana greeted us with hugs and cheek kisses and took us inside where we met Saura and their assistant whose name I forget. Was it Richard? Anyhow, what followed was a two hour tour of their workshop and showroom where Saura explained how they work, what techniques they use, how the oxides are applied, how the firings are done, where she gets her inspiration for her designs...it went on and on. As someone who is a fan of their work it was like being in heaven. While Saura talked and showed us everything, Ivana quietly worked on hand painting a new fish design on a plate.
Saura took us upstairs to their showroom. Wow! There were amazing pieces everywhere. My dream of seeing unique pieces not available in the US certainly had come true. After sometime of showing us their newest work, Saura asked us, "Do you want to see my museum?" She brought us over to a small cabinet, opened it up and started pulling out these amazing small bowls. They were her treasures, her pieces that she would never part with. As she spoke about them, you could sense joy and pride in her voice. She plans to have a show someday of all these bowls. We ended up buying a bowl that was similar to those in her "museum.". I told her to pick her favorite and that was the one we bought.
I could go on and on. They were beyond gracious. It was a highlight of our trip. After we made our purchases, they suggested a place for lunch in downtown Faenza. Ivana went as far as driving downtown and having us follow her so we would find parking and find the restaurant. We will be back to visit anytime we are in Italy.
Here are the photos from our visit.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1094459...CMn27t3LvMymbw
After lunch we walked around town a bit and went to the museum. The museum is amazing and a must for anyone with an interest in ceramics. Faenza is a nice city too.
Bottega Vignoli and Faenza
In San Francisco there is an importer of Italian pottery, mainly from Deruta. It is is sort of an institution and over the years I have shopped there for myself and for others. Biordi Art Imports is in North Beach, so a shopping excursion there followed by lunch or dinner or hang out at City Lights Books makes for a nice day.
About 7 or 8 years ago while on a look see/walk by with M I noticed some really amazing looking vases, pots, bowls and wall mounts that were decidedly modern and didn't fit the traditonal Deruta/Italian Majolica design motifs. They stuck out like a sore thumb and wonderful sore thumb at that.
Much to M's chagrin I got sucked in and started talking to the owner about these new pieces. He said they are Vignoli and are the work of two sisters in the town of Faenza. Saura and Ivana Vignoli had been working for years in Faenza and Biordi had just started importing their work. Upon until very recently it was the only place in the US one could buy it. The pieces had a copper sheen to the glazes and the design work was amazingly intricate and unique. There was even a sardine design! I immediately fell in love with their work and bought something that day. I have continued to purchase their work when my budget permits or when I need a retail therapy fix.
Once home I googled Faenza and Vignoli and started learning more. Faenza is arguably the capital of ceramics in Italy. There is an amazing museum there and a centuries old tradition of pottery making that continues to this day. The term "Faience" ware refers to pottery where a tin oxide glaze is used on white earthen ware pottery. It originated in Faenza, but the French started doing their own take on it too. The Vignoli Sisters are very much part of this tradition, but they are using copper oxides and doing strange things in the firing process that give unusual and spectacular results.
Here are links to Biordi, the museum and to Bottega Vignoli.
Biordi.com
http://www.micfaenza.org/
http://www.ceramichevignoli.com/
I knew some day I would visit their studio. The thought of buying something from their own studio that probably would never see the light of day in the US made me very happy. Sooooo, when the trip to Italy got firmed up I contacted the owner at Biordi and he gave me the Vignoli's email and phone number. I contacted them and told them about how we'd be in Italy in June and we wanted to come by and see their studio, etc. "We are here and waiting for you" was the response I got back. We set a date and time. Yay!
The drive from Spello to Faenza takes about three hours and made for a long day. It was a nice drive, mostly on E45 through the mountains. The road was not in the best shape and there was lots of road and tunnel work going on so that slowed things down a bit. Once you start to come down out of the mountains you are in Emilia Romagna and soon the terrain becomes flat and plain-like. It was very cool to see the terrain change so much.
The Vignoli's studio and showroom is located on the outskirts of town and when we pulled up they were indeed waiting for us! Ivana greeted us with hugs and cheek kisses and took us inside where we met Saura and their assistant whose name I forget. Was it Richard? Anyhow, what followed was a two hour tour of their workshop and showroom where Saura explained how they work, what techniques they use, how the oxides are applied, how the firings are done, where she gets her inspiration for her designs...it went on and on. As someone who is a fan of their work it was like being in heaven. While Saura talked and showed us everything, Ivana quietly worked on hand painting a new fish design on a plate.
Saura took us upstairs to their showroom. Wow! There were amazing pieces everywhere. My dream of seeing unique pieces not available in the US certainly had come true. After sometime of showing us their newest work, Saura asked us, "Do you want to see my museum?" She brought us over to a small cabinet, opened it up and started pulling out these amazing small bowls. They were her treasures, her pieces that she would never part with. As she spoke about them, you could sense joy and pride in her voice. She plans to have a show someday of all these bowls. We ended up buying a bowl that was similar to those in her "museum.". I told her to pick her favorite and that was the one we bought.
I could go on and on. They were beyond gracious. It was a highlight of our trip. After we made our purchases, they suggested a place for lunch in downtown Faenza. Ivana went as far as driving downtown and having us follow her so we would find parking and find the restaurant. We will be back to visit anytime we are in Italy.
Here are the photos from our visit.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1094459...CMn27t3LvMymbw
After lunch we walked around town a bit and went to the museum. The museum is amazing and a must for anyone with an interest in ceramics. Faenza is a nice city too.
Jul 15th, 2011, 08:43 AM
#69
annhig, try to at least work in Orvieto in your plot.>>
We went to Orvieto as a day trip from Rome last February, so whilst i wouldn't mind a return trip, it's not top of my list.
your trip to the pottery studio sounds great.
We went to Orvieto as a day trip from Rome last February, so whilst i wouldn't mind a return trip, it's not top of my list.
your trip to the pottery studio sounds great.
Jul 15th, 2011, 12:53 PM
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iamq-
Great report. Packing all of the restaurants in one posting was a treat.
A familiar experience: wishing you had more time to spend in one town or another, or places you had planned to see but didn't . Although frustrating on one hand, it does provide potential for another trip.
I agree with your approach of having a base to establish a routine. Particularly with an apartment, it allows for more time to relax and sample food from local shops. Just being able to empty the suitcase makes it feel more settled.
Great report. Packing all of the restaurants in one posting was a treat.
A familiar experience: wishing you had more time to spend in one town or another, or places you had planned to see but didn't . Although frustrating on one hand, it does provide potential for another trip.
I agree with your approach of having a base to establish a routine. Particularly with an apartment, it allows for more time to relax and sample food from local shops. Just being able to empty the suitcase makes it feel more settled.
Jul 18th, 2011, 08:31 AM
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Thanks david. I am enjoying your trip report as well. I'd really like to explore the Le Marche region on the next trip. And then there's still Emilia Romagna and it's sumptuous cuisine waiting for us. My agreement with M is that we will do Italy every three to four years. It started out as every 4 years. I have whittled it down to 3 or 4. Soon it will be every 3 and then...well you know how that will go.
charnees, the apartment has a fair number of stairs inside and outside and the town is quite steep with "streets" with stairs as well. The bedroom is on the second level. There is a half bath downstairs, which is nice and completely unexpected.
There are a few things I forgot to mention. The first is about credit cards from the US without the little microchips in them. There has been some discussion here and on other boards about when and where they work or don't work. It was our experience that our Schwab Visa card worked everywhere we used it, including the carte checkout on the autostrada, the gas stations, parking lots and everywhere else we used it. We never had a problem. BTW, the Schwab Visa we used has no conversion fee. The bills are starting to come in and not seeing a conversion fee tacked on is a bit of a silver lining.
We did end up using more cash than we originally thought we would. Many of the shops would not take credit cards and some of the eating situations (Genius Loci) took only cash, so we were pulling more cash out of the bancomat than I had anticipated. The big problem was that we ate so much gelato from the cafe in town it ate up all of our cash. If they'd only taken credit cards!
In my resource section above I neglected to mention another valuable resource for this trip. Blogs. Two blogs in particular supplied me with I'd like to think of as "insider" information.
The first one is: http://www.brigolante.com/blog/
This is a very well organized and well written blog about life in Umbria told from the perspective of a transplanted American who is now fully immersed in Italian life. Her postings on restaurants, journeys within Umbria and daily life were extremely helpful. Rebecca's sense of humor and wit is all over her writing.
The other blog that came in very handy is this one:
http://madonnadelpiatto.com/
Since Letizia runs a cooking school outside of Assisi, among other things, her blog is heavily slanted towards food and recipes. There is a "Visit Assisi" section which offers up a great, short template for a one day visit to Assisi. We used it as an overlay to our day trip there and it proved very useful. The other useful section is called "Visit Umbria" where she has written about several "must sees" for a seven day trip to Umbria. I came across this early on in my planning process and it formed a bit of skeleton for the trip to be filled in later.
I highly recommend a look-see at both of these blogs if you are planning a trip to Umbria.
Here is the last photo installment. It is sort of a clearing house of all the other places we went to. More later.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1094459...CKjx8rqF5cenEw
charnees, the apartment has a fair number of stairs inside and outside and the town is quite steep with "streets" with stairs as well. The bedroom is on the second level. There is a half bath downstairs, which is nice and completely unexpected.
There are a few things I forgot to mention. The first is about credit cards from the US without the little microchips in them. There has been some discussion here and on other boards about when and where they work or don't work. It was our experience that our Schwab Visa card worked everywhere we used it, including the carte checkout on the autostrada, the gas stations, parking lots and everywhere else we used it. We never had a problem. BTW, the Schwab Visa we used has no conversion fee. The bills are starting to come in and not seeing a conversion fee tacked on is a bit of a silver lining.
We did end up using more cash than we originally thought we would. Many of the shops would not take credit cards and some of the eating situations (Genius Loci) took only cash, so we were pulling more cash out of the bancomat than I had anticipated. The big problem was that we ate so much gelato from the cafe in town it ate up all of our cash. If they'd only taken credit cards!
In my resource section above I neglected to mention another valuable resource for this trip. Blogs. Two blogs in particular supplied me with I'd like to think of as "insider" information.
The first one is: http://www.brigolante.com/blog/
This is a very well organized and well written blog about life in Umbria told from the perspective of a transplanted American who is now fully immersed in Italian life. Her postings on restaurants, journeys within Umbria and daily life were extremely helpful. Rebecca's sense of humor and wit is all over her writing.
The other blog that came in very handy is this one:
http://madonnadelpiatto.com/
Since Letizia runs a cooking school outside of Assisi, among other things, her blog is heavily slanted towards food and recipes. There is a "Visit Assisi" section which offers up a great, short template for a one day visit to Assisi. We used it as an overlay to our day trip there and it proved very useful. The other useful section is called "Visit Umbria" where she has written about several "must sees" for a seven day trip to Umbria. I came across this early on in my planning process and it formed a bit of skeleton for the trip to be filled in later.
I highly recommend a look-see at both of these blogs if you are planning a trip to Umbria.
Here is the last photo installment. It is sort of a clearing house of all the other places we went to. More later.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1094459...CKjx8rqF5cenEw
Jul 18th, 2011, 09:39 AM
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Still enjoying your report and photos, iamq. Did you by chance watch the new Masterpiece Theater on NP Television last night? It's the Zen detective series - 3 episodes. The detective's last name is Zen, he's from Venice and kind of an outsider on the police force in Rome. Last night's program was partially set in Umbria and reminiscent of some of your photos.
Jul 18th, 2011, 10:39 AM
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Wonderful trip report, and thanks so much for the Brigolante link! I was an avid reader of the blog but I lost the link when my computer died, so I drifted off--till now. I just read a random selection from Rebecca's Ruminations, and it was marvelous--like getting back in touch with an old friend. Grazie!
Jul 18th, 2011, 11:48 AM
#75
elnap - the shots of Zen's home in Rome are set just round the corner from the apartment we stayed in last year. I spent the whole of the series going 'look, there's......" so much so that the family had to tell me to shut up!
Jul 18th, 2011, 03:58 PM
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Iamq, OOOOO! Biordi!!! Thank goodness I live in the East Bay and don't get to Columbus Ave very often. Everything in that store is gorgeous. I would be broke if I went there very often.
Thanks for your report. I am tempted to stay in Spello. After we go back to our little town NE of Orvieto, Torre Alfina. Two main streets, a car once every 10 minutes, one alimentari, two macellerias, one paneficio, two cafes, one gelateria. Tiny hotel with amazing food.
Thanks for your report. I am tempted to stay in Spello. After we go back to our little town NE of Orvieto, Torre Alfina. Two main streets, a car once every 10 minutes, one alimentari, two macellerias, one paneficio, two cafes, one gelateria. Tiny hotel with amazing food.
Jul 19th, 2011, 06:12 AM
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charnees, Spello is a metropolis compared to what you describe.
Didn't you go to Bologna also on your last trip? How was that apartment that you rented? I remember when you were searching for a place. Wasn't it slightly outside the centro storico? You had a car, right?
Didn't you go to Bologna also on your last trip? How was that apartment that you rented? I remember when you were searching for a place. Wasn't it slightly outside the centro storico? You had a car, right?
Jul 19th, 2011, 08:10 AM
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Iamq, what a good memory! Yes, we went to Bologna and stayed in a very nice 2 BR apt that was two blocks outside the walls, so it wasn't that far out. Plus it was on a bus line. And we had a car so we could go to a caseficio in Parma and an acetaia inModena. The apt owner had a parking permit for the street in front, so we had a place for the car. But we got lost driving from the rental agency. And apparently violated the dreaded ZTL! Waiting still for the axe to fall, as they have a year to charge you.
