Handmade in Italy

A big part of Italy’s culture is a love of everyday beauty, seen in the way that small details enhance the purely functional. Italian craftsmanship and the importance of maintaining traditions and passing on skills through generations of artisans is seen throughout Italy.

Assisi, set in the Umbrian hills, perched above rolling plains, is well known for its extraordinary embroidery that originates from medieval times. It is a tranquil place where visitors walk alongside robed monks and nuns.

Pilgrims have been visiting Assisi since the 13th century to be close to Saint Francis, who was born and buried here, but you don’t have to be religious to love this picture perfect town.

Saint Francis, born in 1181, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, became one of Catholicism’s most revered saints and is one of two patron saints of Italy.

Saint Clare of Assisi is given credit for the craft of embroidery in Assisi. She was a local woman who abandoned her wealthy family and a lifestyle of riches to join Saint Francis of Assisi to pursue a life dedicated to religion. She began her own order of nuns, called The Order of St. Clare, still in existence today, but more commonly referred to as The Poor Clares. Clare led an almost silent life of penance, manual labour and prayer, but she dabbled in embroidery. In fact, she was really good at it. Beyond her many accolades, she’s also known as the patron saint of embroidery.

Over the centuries the artisan needlework has been preserved through courses, workshops and shows. Today, as you walk the narrow stone alleyways, it is not uncommon to see nonnas gathered outside shops and houses sitting on tatty rattan chairs and wooden stools talking and stitching.

I have never been able to resist the beautiful Assisi embroidery. Many shops have adapted the ancient methods for modern times by using contemporary colours on table runners, cushion covers, lampshades, tableclothes and jewellery. It’s always a treasured keepsake or special gift to bring home.

The people of Amalfi learnt to make paper from the Arabs who learnt it from the Chinese, producing rag paper, also known as bambagina, a thick heavy parchment made from rags, generally from cotton or linen cloth. Beginning in the 12th century former macaroni mills were converted to the production of paper, among the first in Europe to do so. By 1811 more than a dozen mills were humming in Amalfi.

In 1954 Amalfi was hit by a devastating flood that destroyed 13 of the 16 paper mills and crushed the paper industry. Today, just one of the surviving three remains. Cartiera Amatruda in the Valle dei Mulini, is in the innermost part of the town built on several levels along the Canneto River. The mill’s owners, the Amatruda family, have carried on the tradition of papermaking since the 15th century and are the only family living in Amalfi that continues to produce paper in the town.

The rags are bleached, shredded and mixed with water; they are then ground and reduced to a pulp into which the form (a cloth with a wooden border and a watermark in the centre) is dipped. From the form, the pulp is transferred onto felt cloths and stacked into a pile in which the sheets of paper alternate with the felt. Next, the stack is pressed to remove water. The sheets of paper are hung on iron wires to dry where there are large windows to provide air drafts.

Paper is handmade daily - the way it has been for more than 700 years. The Amatruda paper mill has a small, but worldwide market and exports wedding invitations, bookmarks, business cards, painting paper and more to those who appreciate the hard work and quality of this ancient craft.

Also very special is the paper with flowers, made by dipping fresh flowers picked in the valleys around the paper mills, into the paste in which the form is dipped.

This is an old paper mill that dates back to the 13th century. Visitors can experience ancient papermaking techniques during a guided tour and see the centuries old machinery used in the production of paper by hand. The ancient wooden hammers, driven by a water wheel, that beat and shred the linen, cotton and hemp rags and the 18th century presses used to remove excess water from the sheets have been restored and made functional. These are operated during the tour.

Just north of Venice and with a population of around 5,000, the 1.5 kilometre wide island of Murano is famous the world over for handblown glass.

Murano glass can only be created in one of the 60 or so factories on the island. It’s been this way since the 13th century and not much has changed in the techniques of the craft, except for a few tweaks like switching from wood to natural gas furnaces for better temperature control and to reduce carbon emissions. The factories’ roaring furnaces stay on nearly the whole year, shutting just once in August for maintenance.

Interestingly, I just finished reading ‘The Glassmaker’ by Tracy Chevalier. The story begins in the 15th century and is about a woman from a glassmaking family on Murano who makes glass beads. It’s a great read with so much history interwoven throughout the story. In the 15th century, they also shut down the furnaces in the hottest month of August.

A Murano glass object is so delicate that it can shatter into pieces at even the slightest exaggeration of pressure, but if treated with care it can survive for hundreds of years.

In the past few years, however, many of the glass factories on Murano have been eerily quiet, as their owners continue to face some of the biggest challenges to date with soaring energy prices. In 2021, Murano craftsman Cristiano Ferro saw his furnace fuel costs skyrocket from 40,000 euro in September to 170,000 euro in October. The surge forced him, like many others, to shut down his furnaces indefinitely.

Although the Italian government allocated around 3 billion euro in relief this year to help businesses with rising energy costs, it’s just one battle for Murano. Over the years cheap replicas from other countries have flooded the market which, more often than not, are bought by the tourists.

However, this is Italy. People fight to preserve the tradition and keep it alive today. The island’s glassmakers remain cautiously hopeful as their furnaces are slowly being powered up once again.

Ci vediamo la prossima settimana.

Deb