In view of Christmas, the Campeggi.com portal takes us on an exciting journey through the variegated world of Italian artistic craftsmanship. From Val d'Aosta to Sicily, a colorful universe full of skilful craftsmanship, waiting to be discovered.
Journey into Italian artistic craftsmanship
The protagonist of the Valle d'Aosta craftsmanship is wood, whose processing and carving techniques have been handed down for centuries. These find one of their maximum expressions in the “friendship cup“, a container with a lid characterized by several spouts, into which a local drink based on grappa and coffee is poured. Tradition has it that, during gatherings with friends, the cup is passed from hand to hand in a clockwise direction. This is how you drink à la ronde, each from a different spout.
Registered among the intangible cultural heritages of Unesco, traditional Cremonese violin making is one of the most famous forms of Italian craftsmanship in the world. His origins date back to 1539, when Andrea Amati started his workshop thus paving the way for other families such as the Guarneri and the Stradivari. Master craftsmen who carry on the tradition for centuries by creating violins, cellos, violas and double basses for some of the greatest masters of music. Today the tradition is more alive than ever thanks to the international violin making school and the Violin Museum, housed in the Palazzo dell'Arte in Cremona.
The art in your hands
White linen canvas enriched with indigo, green or red dyed blue cotton wefts and figures. These are the very precious Perugian tablecloths, born on the streets of the Umbrian city between Middle Ages and the Renaissance and then appreciated and marketed throughout Europe. They are small works of art created by the hands of the women of Perugia, whose long and precious tradition is told inside the museum-workshop in the former church of Saint Francis of Women. In the past, it was common practice to prepare your own bread at home and then take it to the city oven to bake it. TO Matera, this custom lasted until the XNUMXs. To distinguish the different loaves, families impressed a symbol on the dough, with a wooden stamp, recognizable even by those who could neither read nor write.
Brognaturo is a small town not far from Vibo Valentia, where the artisans make by hand le smoking pipe, small and very precious works of art. These objects, the flagship of local craftsmanship, are carved in tree heather briar, a very hard wood characterized by unique grains. One of the best and most valuable in the world for making pipes. The secret is in the low content of tannins which, if present in large quantities, are responsible for the bitter and sour notes perceived by smokers.
The dark brown heads, between craftsmanship and legend
The dark brown heads are one of the greatest expressions of Sicilian craftsmanship and have their roots in an ancient legend. It is said that in the Palermo of the year one thousand there lived a girl who used to spend her days on the balcony tending to her plants. One day, a Moorish prince passes by and the two fall madly in love, but when he confesses to having a wife and children, she, blinded by jealousy, cuts off his head and then displays it on the balcony with a basil plant on top. Passers-by, fascinated by what they thought was a work of art, ask local artisans to make similar terracotta pots. Thus was born a millenary tradition that is still alive today throughout the island, in particular, in the Caltagirone area.
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