Made in Italy: Laura Morelli's Authentic Arts, #4

By Laura Morelli

Richly painted maiolica ceramics from Tuscany. Supple Florentine leather. The cameos of Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Parmigiano-Reggiano, the king of cheeses. Jaw-dropping glass from the island of Murano.

MADE IN ITALY takes you on a complete tour of the dazzling artisanal legacy of Italy, uncovering off-the-beaten-path destinations and one-of-a-kind, hidden workshops where everything from leather bags to gilded frames are turned out completely by hand, piece by piece.

This book includes instructions for getting a free copy of the companion guide, ARTISANS OF ITALY, with complete, continually updated listings of Laura's personally recommended shops and artisans across Italy.

Laura Morelli, art historian and trusted guide in the world of cultural travel and authentic shopping, leads you behind the tourist traps to discover some of Italy's most traditional arts.

Laura holds a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University and shares how, what, and where to buy; hints on recognizing quality and authenticity; and tips for bringing home the artisanal treasures of Italy in your suitcase.

Scroll up and grab your copy today!

Delicious to read and artfully photographed, as appealing as the beautiful Italian products that it so enticingly describes. --Traditional Home

Full of historical information, advice on avoiding scams, and ways to pack it all up to take home...  --House & Garden Magazine

Offers travelers a complete guide of what to buy where. --"Leather-Bound Edition," CNN Radio

This beautifully illustrated and instructive shopping guide will lead you to the "best of the best" of Old-World artisanal traditions and handmade crafts. --Endless Vacation

• Language: English
• Publisher: Authentic Arts Publishing
• Release date: Jan 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781942467236

Laura Morelli

Laura Morelli holds a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University and is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling historical novelist. Laura has taught college students in the U.S. and in Italy. She has covered art and authentic travel for TED-Ed, National Geographic Traveler, Italy Magazine, CNN Radio, and other media. Laura is the author of the popular Authentic Arts guidebook series that includes Made in Italy. Her historical novels, including The Night Portrait, The Gondola Maker, and The Last Masterpiece, bring the stories of art history to life.

Book preview

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Copyright © 2019 Laura Morelli

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Published in the United States of America.

LAURA MORELLI’S AUTHENTIC ARTS

ISBNs: 978-1-942467-21-2 audio, 978-1-942467-22-9 mobi,

978-1-942467-23-6 epub, 978-1-942467-24-3 paperback

Graphic Design: Shannon Bodie, Bookwise Design

Made in Italy: A Shopper’s Guide to Italy’s Best Artisanal Traditions, from Murano Glass to Ceramics, Jewelry, Leather Goods, and More

By Laura Morelli, Authentic Arts Publishing, Third Edition

Image Credits:

COVER: © Laura Morelli. TITLE PAGE: © Malgorzata Kistryn via Depositphotos. ABOUT THE THIRD EDITION: © ludovic CC via Flickr. THE SPIRIT OF TRADITION: © Piermarco CC via Flickr; © kn via Shutterstock; © Nordic Photos via Shutterstock; © Pixachi via iStockphoto. CHAPTER 1: © Scott Ashkenaz CC via Flickr; © CC via Flickr; © cristian CC via Flickr; © jurra8 via Shutterstock; © doroth via Fotolia; © haveseen via iStockphoto; © Hemis via Superstock; © AndyMagee via iStockphoto; © ClaudioVentrella via iStockphoto; © Laura Morelli; © Courtesy StufArte; © Courtesy Dolfi Ortisei. CHAPTER 2: © Courtesy DiManoInMano; © ArtBoyMB via iStockphoto; © Courtesy Museo Archeologico della Valchiavenna; © Giorgio Rodano CC via Flickr; © Silvia Benedet CC via Flickr; © Dave Cristoff via iStockphoto; © Flavio Vallenari via iStock; © Flavio Vallenari via iStock. CHAPTER 3: © Anerix via iStockphoto; © Laura Rainis; © siberianwarcat via iStockphoto; © Laura Morelli; © Malgorzata_Kistryn via Depositphotos; © AvalancheZ via CStock; © Laura Morelli; © Giuseppe Moscato CC via Flickr. CHAPTER 4: © La Paranza del Greco CC via Flickr; © Wendy Kaveney via Fotolia; © Antonio Manfredonio CC via Flickr; © Giovanni CC via Flickr; © Courtesy Giuseppe Fasano; © lauradiblase via iStockphoto; © Laura Morelli; © Dennis Jarvis CC via Flickr. CHAPTER 5: © Courtesy sardegnaturismo; © Laura Morelli; © johncopland via iStockphoto; © ilaria corda CC via Flickr; © giofri958 CC via iStockphoto; © Nicolas vadilonga CC via Flickr; © Laura Morelli; © Courtesy Platimiro Fiorenza; © Stefano Mortellaro CC via Flickr; © Missuale CC via Flickr; © Luisa CC via Flickr. AUTHOR PHOTO: © Sarah DeShaw. BACK COVER: © Gudrun Muenz via Shutterstock.

Contents

FREE DOWNLOAD

About the Third Edition

The Spirit of Tradition

1 Northeast Italy

2 Northwest Italy

3 Central Italy

4 Southern Italy

5 The Islands

About the Author

FREE DOWNLOAD

Download your free copy of the companion guide, Artisans of Italy, with up-to-date listings of my personally recommended artisans and shops.

Visit www.LauraMorelli.com/Italy-ReaderGift to get started.

About the Third Edition

Since my initial research for the first edition of Made in Italy back in the late 1990s, my inbox has been flooded. You’ve shared your stories, recommended artisans and shops you’ve discovered, and sent me great pictures. I love hearing from you!

As our world becomes increasingly homogenized with mega-stores, corporate chains, and mass production, I think we are hungry for unique, handmade items, and a chance to make a connection with real people when we travel. In Italy, we increasingly seek immersive activities, from stuffing ravioli with pecorino to making leather bookmarks.

While I’ve updated this guidebook for the third time, I’ve been amazed how many things in Italy have changed in recent years. Unfortunately, some artisans have succumbed to the economic pressures of our times. We live in an environment where customers want immediate gratification; it can be difficult to justify time and value for objects that require so many hours of labor. It is particularly heart-wrenching to watch multigenerational enterprises close their doors.

The good news is that many of the longstanding artisanal enterprises still thrive. Also, some new artisans have appeared on the scene. In order to keep abreast of these inevitable changes, I have pulled the listings section into a separate ebook, which you can download free at www.LauraMorelli.com/Italy-ReaderGift. My goal is to keep the ebook companion guide as up to date as possible to ensure the best possible travel and shopping experience for you.

Italy still possesses an astonishing number of world-class craftspeople and artisanal traditions. Thousands of specialists carry on the important job of preserving Italy’s artisanal patrimony, from Murano glass to Florentine leather. Italian artisanal tradition is all about legacy, quality, pride, workmanship, and history, what I call would call a spirit of tradition that, thankfully, endures.

The Spirit of Tradition

My small village outside Milan has no movie theater and no convenience stores, but it’s got an artisan who turns out the most stunning handcrafted cellos you’ll ever see. Tucked into a cobblestone alley off the main street, his humble studio is a mosaic of sawdust, hand tools, strings, and planks of wood waiting to be turned into masterpieces of song.

The poetry of the gestures of manual labor, repeated day after day, year after year, century after century, is the essence of European life and tradition. For international visitors, the image of the Old World artisan laboring on a unique, handmade item remains imprinted on the memory long after the return home. From supple leather bags to blown glass, colorful ceramics, stunning wrought iron furniture, finely crafted wood, and, of course, scrumptious food, Italy means quality goods and time-honored workmanship.

I want to take you on a journey. It’s a journey to see an 88-year-old woman in a Sardinian village whose able hands swiftly work a wooden hand loom her grandmother taught her to use when she was just five. It’s a journey to an Umbrian hill town to watch an artisan paint a picture of a rabbit on a terra-cotta pot, while drawing inspiration from a 500-year-old ceramic fragment at his side. It’s a journey to the gastronomic mecca of Parma, to watch an inspector poke an aging ham hock with a horse-bone needle, and draw it under his nose to rate its quality compared to thousands of similar specimens he has tested over four decades.

Across Italy, handcrafted objects, or prodotti artigianali, emerge from humble workshops, artisan studios, and tidy homes of countless Italian towns and villages. Italian craftspeople sustain a passion for traditional occupations that is unrivaled in the Old World. From wrought iron to delicate embroidery, crisp table linens, colored glass, and woodcarving, they bring to life the same forms that captivated their ancient ancestors. That pride in workmanship, local tradition, and skill has been passed down through generations, and still shines through the shop windows lining cobblestone streets on this sun-filled peninsula where time seems to stand still.

Why I Wrote This Book

The first time I visited Venice as a wide-eyed 16-year-old, I knew I was supposed to buy Murano glass, but I had no idea why. All I knew was that I was whisked to the famous glass island on an overcrowded, stinky boat, and whisked into an overcrowded, stinky glass factory, then pressured to buy something by someone speaking English with a really bad accent. I waited behind two dozen American and Asian tourists to pay an exorbitant price for a little green glass fish, which still sits on the windowsill of my study as a testimony to the bewildering experience.

Still, it was the artistic traditions of Italy that lured me back again after that first trip. As I pursued advanced studies in art history, I continued to return not only to Venice but also to Rome, Florence, Milan, and other towns to see the celebrated works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Tintoretto, and other painters and sculptors. I stood in line for hours at the Uffizi and sought out many smaller art museums and churches around the country. I had to experience the mystery and effect of those masterpieces firsthand, as if standing before a Renaissance painting or a gilded altarpiece could impart some sense of meaning and reality that my own fast-paced, New World culture had lost... or maybe never had.

Years later, my family and I accepted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move from the United States to Italy on a company transfer. I was elated. I imagined spending hours exploring the museums, galleries, and church treasuries again, and looked forward to arriving in this art lover’s paradise. I relished the thought of experiencing the pleasure that comes in understanding and appreciating beautiful objects and the best of human creativity.

Upon arrival, my anticipation soon turned to disillusion. We were living in a small town north of Milan that looked nothing like Venice, Rome, or Florence. There were no great museums and there was no great art; only quiet residential streets, cornfields, and nondescript industrial outskirts. There was no Michelangelo. There were no tourists.

With no great paintings or churches to distract me, I found myself wrapped up in the more practical aspects of getting integrated into Italian life and my new home. We moved into a house that needed built-in bookshelves and armadi, the ubiquitous armoires that serve as closets in Italian homes. I contracted with a local family of carpenters to do the work. After two months of waiting with no response, I called to complain. The young carpenter explained their slow place by spouting the company philosophy: "Signora, siamo pochi, ma buoni (Ma’am, we’re few, but good").

My aggravation turned to wonder when they finally appeared. At long last, a white van pulled up in front of my house and the carpenters emerged with toolboxes, sawhorses, and large planks of raw lumber. Over the course of days, this grandfather, father, and son transformed the courtyard outside our house into an artisan’s workshop. With saws, sandpaper, and their hands, they created a set of bookcases and armoires as if by magic, then installed them in the gaping spaces in the walls. As the father and son tamped the wood gently with a mallet, the grandfather observed and critiqued, and made a few tweaks of his own.

The result was stunning: fine strips of different