After our visit with Carlo, we were off to Convalle to see Romeo Ricciardi. Romeo is now a weaver. He worked in a shoe factory, and after he retired, he decided to indulge his desire to weave. He bought an old handloom and took lessons from an elderly woman in his village. His wife Nada …
Up another mountain today about 1000 meters up to Cerasa Farm. The Cavani family is part of a project to save the native breed of Garfagnana sheep. Signora Gemma uses their milk to make pecorino cheese. She explains how she makes the pecorino cheese by starting with the milk to cutting the curd …
After breakfast, we drove to Lucca. The tour participants had some time to walk around Lucca, have some lunch, and have a private tour of the Maria Niemack Laboratory, National Museum Mansi. I opted to have some alone time and get lost in the streets of Lucca. At about 2pm, we drove to Segromigno …
After the Breadmaking, some of the local ladies from Petrognola (I believe church ladies) did a demonstration of spinning with a distaff and drop spindle. Spinning is the process where, in this case, wool or other fibre are pulled and twisted to form yarn. The distaff is the rod that holds the wool fibre and …
After breakfast, we drove from Venturo to Petrognola a beautiful little village in the Garfagnana to meet with Paolo Magazzini, the village baker. He showed us how to make the bread dough using a starter that he has kept ‘alive’ that was his mother’s (who has since passed) and putting in freshly boiled potatoes that …
This afternoon we went to the home of Lucia Nesi in Colle di Compito. Lucia is a member of the Antiche Tessiture Lucchesi (Antique Textiles of Lucca). After a quick introduction, we started to collect fern leaves and different plants, etc to naturally dye wool. Those of you that know me know I have no …
Heather doesn’t drink much milk. I do. I love all dairy. On the last visit, about a year ago, she told me of the mechanical cow that sits in the middle of Borgo a Mozzano, a local village. I was intrigued and had to go ‘milk’ it…. Below is a photo of it in all …
