WEDNESDAY April 10 and THURSDAY April 11th (yes, we are a little behind in our posting!)

Wednesday, April 10

CARTIERA MAGNANI

1404... the year this paper company was founded on the Pescia River... Magnani is the paper Dani has been using for years now, and the chance to visit the factory was like being a kid in a candy shop, only less fattening!

In the background of this photo you can see the archives going back to the beginning of the 1800's:

Renza explaining the history of Magnani to Kate and Dani

The quality of their product is maximum... they still work by hand:

Watermarked paper with the Botticelli's "Primavera" for the Uffizzi gallery

Watermarked paper for a wedding invitation.

"Factory" sounds perhaps more imposing that the reality. In this centuries old building straddling the Pescia river, a corageous group of workers and technicians continue to work, even if they receive their monthly pay late, trying to save the business from the crisis that is destroying the Italian economy.

Dani in front of the factory

Until a few years ago, 120 people worked there. Now only about 25 remain, from CEO to truck drivers.

But... little by little we are sure they will do it!

Talking with the CEO, in the midst of the paper.

Most of the paper is produced on machines designed at the end of the 1800's  (see photos below including the photo showing tape holding bits of the machine together) to produce beautiful paper without defects since they check each sheet that leaves the factory and reject any with even a defect the size of a speck of pepper.

Mixing water and pulp.

thank goddness they invented tape !!

checking the thikness

1860 machine still working

Drying the paper

Spooling

Changing the spool

Final spools

Finished product

 (When Dani saw the quantity of paper piled in the courtyard moulding in the rain he almost began to cry!)

Nooooooooooooooooooooo...!!!

They create the best (and just about the most expensive paper for designers, watermarked stationary, banknotes, event tickets, invitations and other kinds of speciality cards, and stationary of the highest quality.

On the day we visited, they were making paper for passports for an Arab country and watermarked paper for printing theatre tickets.

 After the visit to the paper mill, and after filling the car with packs of paper which we have no idea how we will transport back to the States!, "Capitano" drove us up the valley of the Pescia, to visit a series of mountain villages: Castelvecchio, Vellano, Potito....

Map of the Valdinievole

We drove through a series of indescribably beautiful villages built into the rock of the mountain, architecture constructed without architects, based in tradition, functional needs and common sense, and using only locally available material.

Pieve di Catelvecchio (1215)

On the way to Pontito

Pontito 

Vellano

Thank you once again Capitano! This time in Italy would be entirely different without you!


11 April

Today, it was Giovanna who showed us her town... where we are living, where she was born and has lived most of her life, and where she was at one point vice-mayor (Dani says also the next mayor) ... at the moment, she is part of the opposition in the city council. It turns out that it is a beautiful and vibrant small town that most visitors to Italy will never see. We are privileged!

Giovanna and Dani in front of the Palagio (= used to be the palace of the ruler of Pescia... now a museum)

Inside the Palagio (maybe the site of Dani's next show in Italy)

Inside the Palagio are the plaster molds for scultures by a native Pesciatino: "Libero Andreotti"
(This is the final sculpture outside in a nearby Piazza... the plaster case inside was one of Kate's favorites, even if Dani didn't like it as much: "Il Perdono" (Forgiveness).)

Pescia "Commune" (City Hall) and the top of the main "square" (actually a rectangle)

The main "rectangle" looking down from the City Hall

Signs of SPRING!!! FINALLY!!!

Roi's birthplace (What, you've never heard of the famous Roi of Pescia???)

Church and Piazza/parking lot

The requisite convent (there is always a convent in any town in Italy)

View from the second floor window of Roi's birthplace

At the end of the street where Roi's birthplace is located

Ok, ok... enough Pescia already!

(We know you are wondering... "Who is Roi???" A good friend, part of the Pesica band, and very proud to have been born in Pescia. Oh yes, and husband to "Silvia of Collodi" introduced in an earlier post.)

Thank you all for introducing us to what it means to live in a small town in Italy, among close friends who care for and take care of each other. We are honored that you have shared your world with us!

Kate and Dani.... ttttthat's all for now folks! More to come :)