Back from Italy. Lots to share.

My intentions were good, but I posted not one photo, not one story, not one anything while Harry and I traversed Italy.  We had a grand time, loved the people, loved the landscape, saw incredible ruins at Ostia Antica, and ate our way across the regions of Umbria, Abruzzo and Lazo.  Sometimes, though, we went hungry.   Not possible in Italy, you say!  Yes, it is -- a story I'll tell you later.

Actually, I have lots of stories to regale you with.  It will take awhile to unfold them all, and they will be slightly patched together, definitely not in order of occurrence.

Today, I start with the people. 

...the people who made our journey so very special.  We went to Italy for the people, but we had no idea how many would touch our lives.  We encountered the kindness of countless strangers and two now-even-dearer American friends, in part because the trip was not without incident -- but those tales come later.

Harry with Christine and Mark, Santa Feans living part-time in Italy.  They came to our rescue the first time!

Viviana and me.  Owner of Hotel Europa in Rieti with a lively, sweet personality, she was my rescue angel #2.  (More later.)

Meet Giada - what a sweetheart!  Owner of B&B Il Viaggiatore in Popoli.  Gracious, smart, and a real live-wire, Giada "made" our visit to Popoli.

Found someone online with family from Popoli!

In early July this year, googling Popoli for seasonal temperatures, on page 1, I found a "travelogue" written by an American whose grandparents emigrated from Italy.  Not unusual - except it showed up on the weather page because his grandmother was from Popoli!  I couldn't believe what I was reading.  It only got better when I clicked to his blog and he was talking about his trip to Popoli and searching for his grandmother's home.

Well, fortunately, when I reached out to him, he supplied me with many great tips for my upcoming trip.  Plus, he shared things he was unable to do while he was there that he thought would be valuable in my search.  Go to the Comune di Popoli (equivalent to our municipal hall of records) for the addresses where Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop were born.  Try to find a 1900's map because street names have changed.  Visit the cemetery to search for my great grandparents or possibly other family members, etc.

This chance online meeting energized me even further and greatly enriched my experience.  I accomplished all three of his major suggestions (which you'll read about as I pull my story together) and, now that I'm back, I'm doing the best I can to enrich his knowledge of Popoli as well.  Thank you so very much, Armando.

First stop...Perugia for a week. Reservations made.

Making progress.  Harry and I decided to enjoy Perugia as a home base for one week in September.   So  we booked our airline reservations to set our travel dates.  And then we booked our room in Albergo Anna, the charming small hotel pictured at right whose staff has already made us feel welcome.

We'll settle in and "just be Italian" every day in Perugia, plus make a few day trips into the surrounding villages.  Albergo Anna is nestled in Perugia's historic district and we intend to walk, walk, walk everywhere -- like we did in Florence several years ago.  Nothing finer!

Destination Popoli, birthplace of my grandparents.

All aboard for Perugia, Deruta, the Marche region, and ultimately Popoli in the province of Pescara in the Abruzzo region of Italy.  Birthplace of my grandparents!  (If you have not read my earlier posts about Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop, read here about how they are the likely link to my Italian pottery obsession and about when they immigrated thru Ellis Island.

For three weeks in September, we'll travel by train as much as possible, because it's our absolute favorite mode of transport in Europe.  I promise to share my travel research as Harry and I make plans.  At present, we intend to fly into Rome, spending just enough time to catch the train to Perugia.  Along our route, we will seek out small towns and villages in which to wander, soak up everyday Italian life, sip cappuccino in the morning, improve my Italian...you get the picture!

And, when we arrive in Popoli, I've joked that I will stand in the piazza with copies of my grandparents birth certificates and see if anyone "claims" me as kin!

Year of the Dragon - Italian and Chinese style

The Chinese ushered in The Year of the Dragon on January 23 this year with the beginning of their new year.  Even the United Stated Postal Service honors the Year of the Dragon on new issue stamp. And me?  I celebrate doubly for the dragon also graces (strange dragon description) Italian myths and legends.

Perhaps it began with an early portrayal of this dark creature painted by Raphael around 1504 in his depiction of St. George and The Dragon.  His second version of St. George's heroism induces a dragon even more robust and sinister.  Over the centuries, however, the romantic Italians transformed that mythical beast and made it their own.

The Italians "morphed" the dragon from dark to full of light and delicious tones of rich yellow and golds, touches of red, blues and greens.  From terrifying to not only whimsical but to a symbol of good fortune.  Puffed-cheeked and ensconced in curlicues symbolizing fair winds to relieve the doldrums for seagoing merchants.  The Italians' medium?  Not the canvas and fresco employed by Raphael, but their "ceramiche," their handmade and hand painted pottery patterns proudly baptized Raffaellesco.

I have my own myth!  In true fire-breathing dragon style, I believe the dragons still puff out their curlicues to ignite the fires of today's Italian kilns. It's to their advantage, no?  They're inspiring both their own continued existence and that of new offspring. (Call me a romantic, too.)

Life happens...

There's an expression about how Life happens while we're off making other plans.  That's kind-of, sort-of what happened here.  Things happened that made me close MyItalianPottery, the website.  But I've decided to continue MyItalianPottery, The Blog.  It will re-invent itself as we go along.  It will still be about things Italian.  And we'll see where it takes us.  Like to Italy early this coming Fall!

For today, I'll take you no further.  I just wanted a recent post so that if you've been visiting and wondered why nothing was new, you'd at least know The Blog had not been abandoned.

I'll be back!

Italian Pottery Patterns. What you like will influence us.

FARFALLO VARIO

OLIVE

RAFFAELLESCO Classico

RAFFAELLESCO Moderno

Full details with more images are in a lead story on Oct 10 and a second story the same day.  Your COMMENTS here or there will help guide us.  Which of these four pattern(s) do you like and why?   (There was a more formal survey, but technical difficulties ensued...so it's gone!)

My articles on Italian Ceramics have been published...in Italian

You want to talk about a KICK??!!  Cruising the internet yesterday, I found an article I had written in English (of course!).  It had been translated and re-published in Italian!!  On a blog called "BE . com."  Then this morning, I saw that my site had visitors from Argentina.  And they came to The Blog from reading a second of my articles, also re-published by the same blog.

Oh! that my Italian were so fluent that I could have written the original like this.  Look how sexy the two titles look...

Cerámica italiana – cómo vajillas de cerámica se convierte en arte  

and... 

Cerámica italiana hoy – las complejidades y el Arte de un proceso de siglos de cerámica

Just sharing the experience. How many of you can read these two titles?  Please POST and let me know.

The Argentina and Italy connection...

As for the Argentina-Italy connection, here are two background statistics and one really lovely YouTube video I researched:

• Up to 25 million Argentines have some degree of Italian descent, around 60% of the total population (Source: Wikipedia 2001 and preliminary 2010 census).  
• Back in 1905, 40 percent of the Buenos Aires' population was of Italian origin.   They had immigrated to Argentina to build national ports, railroads and theaters and to help turn Argentina into one of the world's richest nations.  (Source: Kevin Hall, Herald World Staff Writer, July 8, 2001 -- a reverse immigration article entitled Italians Fleeing Argentina. ) 
• Tribute to Italian Immigrants to Argentina - Non Piangere per me Argentina.  Milva is the  Italian singer; you'll recognize the melody, no doubt, if not the words.
  

So tell me which of these pottery designs you love best...

I went to the New York International Gift Fair in August.  (Now I tell you!)  Wish you could have been with me.  I had a blast!

I went to touch and breath in some of the newest and most dazzling work in Italian pottery.  And, especially delightful, I met for the first time Luca Sambuco from Ceramiche Sambuco.  Luca and I had been emailing back and forth for a number of months, so it was super to meet him in person -- and his brother Luciano.  Now, I have the honor of giving you a peak at some of the new designs they brought to the New York Gift Fair.

Here we go...

 

Do you know who this is?

I'm testing your knowledge here (just a little) of Italian pottery design.  Take a second look...

I want to pinch their cheeks.

If you said, Raffaellesco, good on you!  This is the time-honored, much loved Raffaellesco pattern.  (Another time, if you like, I will tell you more about the Raffaellesco myth and how it came to be one of the most popular pottery designs.)

For now, I want to show off more of the work.

ABOVE:  The traditional, classic presentation of Raffaellesco pattern.

ABOVE & BELOW:  Sambuco's more modern application in design & form of these whimsical, mythical dragons.  Notice how the "canvass" gives the dragon greater white space in which to show off.  I'd call the above platter shape a "squared octagonal."

I have a soft spot for square plates.  And I love the Raffaellesco dragons peaking around the edges.

Moving now into the olive grove...

Luscious and plump!  A pattern needing no more detailed name than simply, "Olive."  Look at the wonderful shapes of the bowls!

 And finally (for now)...

FARFALLE...Italian for Butterfly.  Colorful, vivid, warm, delicate and strong -- all in one.  This design is Vario Farfalle.

MyItalianPottery invites your feedback. Help overcome our bias. We love it all!

In another post today, you got a peak at a few new Italian ceramic pottery designs.   I took the photos at the New York International Gift Fair (August 14-18) in the exhibit space of Ceramiche Sambuco while visiting with Luca Sambuco.

This is not an official announcement (yet), but MyItalianPottery has been working with Sambuco to offer you some of their collections.  I would like to start this new venture by asking you to help select "the work."  The pottery designs and forms I love are not nearly as important as what you love.  I pretty much LOVE IT ALL.  So I invite your feedback.

Obviously, the choices presented in my photos don't begin to represent all of what we intend eventually to offer you.  I'm just looking for some of your favorites as the best place to start.

So I encourage you to take the survey (SURVEY IS CLOSED, SORRY!)...but please give as much feedback as you'd like in the  COMMENTS section below .  (As a reader of MyItalianPottery - The Blog, you are sharing plans we have not yet introduced on our website.  Stay in touch for other "inside stories" by joining us.  Sign up today!)

Grazie mille!

Hand Painted Lemons - Bold & Luscious - Favorite Italian Ceramics Theme.

A design called Frutta

Do you know that lemons show up in Pompeian wall paintings? The Italians have been cultivating them since ancient Roman times if not earlier.  No wonder lemons are so prominent in Italian pottery designs today.  Tradition!  We present many collections at My Italian Pottery that beautifully capture this special frutta..  In some they are the star of the show; in others they share the "canvas" with other yummy fruits.

Frutta Mista Design

Alcantara Design

 

Limone Design

              

Correction from Ellis Island...

Pop-Pop so handsome.

I need to make a correction about my grandparents immigration dates -- and it's pretty cool.  I got into Ellis Island records and found them both.  Pop-Pop arrived at Ellis Island in 1907 and Mom-Mom in 1911.  In my previous post (on 9/29) explaining the possible roots of my Italian ceramic pottery obsession, I said my grandparents immigrated from Italy in 1910.  That date came from family notes.  But 1907 and 1911 are official.

If you have family to trace, I highly recommend this site.  It's a blast...and it's free!

Ellis Island Port of New York records.

You'll only need the passenger's last name.  First name is optional.  If you have exact year of birth, terrific.  If not, they've got a field for approximate year of birth.  Select Gender -- and click Start Search.  It's that easy.

I now even know that Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop both sailed from Naples -- and the names of the ships they arrived on -- the Virgina and the Konig Albert.   (The photo above is the earliest I have of Pop-Pop.  I wish I had an even younger picture, but I especially love this one!)

Happy researching!  Let us know if you're search is successful.   Would love to hear your story!

Biscotti cookie jars make me smile! How 'bout you?

Frutta Biscotti Cookie Jar

Firenze Biscotti Cookie Jar

Girasole Biscotti Jar

I hear you're not supposed to have "favorite" children...but Biscotti Cookie Jars are the exception to almost all my "rules."  I don't know whether it's all their fun shapes...or their job of housing special treats...or just the plain fun of saying the word B I S C O T T I !!! How can you look at them without smiling??!!

I'll bet the sunflower in the Girasole pattern follows the sun.  And, if you ever run out of lemons for tea or cooking, just borrow one from the Frutta jar. These three are just a tease...there are other designs and shapes in MyItalianPottery's Biscotti Cookie Jar collection.

My Italian pottery obsession. How it began.

Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop

Sure, it's because it's pottery beyond mere utility...it's arte!  Sure it's the scrumptious colors.  (Did you ever think of colors as being scrumptious?)  Sure it's the magic of touching the work and imagining the potter and designer that created it.

But what may really explain my ongoing love affair with Italian pottery is -- it's Italian...and so am I.  Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop (that's how I called my Mom's parents), immigrated to the east coast of United States from Italy in 1910.  Homemade wine, garden fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic cooked into vats of pasta sauce, and hand-formed and hand-rolled gnocchi that Mom-Mom and I made in the basement to surprise the family...all that fuels my DNA and the greatest memories...and thus my obsession.

The Italian pottery is just my excuse to stay in close touch with my heritage.  And gives me excuses (I don't need) to visit as often as possible.

Mom-Mom & Me

(Are you still reading the second paragraph and wondering "What is a "gnocchi?"  Well, they're little potato & flour (bullet) pasta.  Bullet?  Yeah, they're like lead when they hit your stomach.  You can't eat many because you fill up really fast...but they were soooo very delicious when Mom-Mom made them.  My earlier reference to the basement was just one particular day when we led the family to believe we were doing wash in the cellar, but we were really making gnocchi for an Easter surprise.  I was probably four years old and Mom-Mom's best co-conspirator!)

Thanks for making me tell you that story.  I'm smiling from ear to ear right now.