Ceramics and Linens from Deruta (Umbria)
September 1, 2010
So, Alessandro and I have successfully brought the tribe over the Atlantic, and here we are a week in to our Roman holiday.
Yesterday we went to Deruta, which is a tiny little town in Umbria where we are having our ceramic dishes for the trattoria handpainted, and also a smaller village nearby (S. Valentino) where they are producing the table linens and curtains for our dining rooms.
I wasn’t able to visit either of the factories/workshops back in May when Alessandro came over with Vincenzo to order these things, because our girls were still very little and I am getting my master’s in Social Work at UW, and have to go year-round! In fact, these few weeks are the only time all year that I get a break from school. So now the girls are 7 months and I’ve finished my first of three years of my degree program. Time to take a little breath and a drive in the country, and check on our dishes and linens.
Such a fun day! Each of the places we visited is a small, family-owned and operated business that luckily has managed to weather the economic storm and stay open. We are so excited because we are actually going to be a sort of distributor for the family that produces our dishes, and so we will be able to sell all kinds of beautiful things, from their beautiful hand-painted dishes to very unique Christmas ornaments.
We added a few things to our order yesterday, including small lamps for each table (so cute!) and some other details like salt and pepper shakers. Here are some photos from the store:
This is the cute little piazza in front of the store:
Here are a few shots of things on display inside the store:
A checkerboard:
Isn’t it all so lovely? You won’t believe how amazing it is all going to look when the tables are set. I can’t wait!!!
After a wonderful lunch in the Umbrian countryside (trying desperately not to get all “Under the Tuscan Sun” on you…),
check out this dessert for example:
We headed over to Tessuti Sposini where they have 40- and 50-year old looms that produce their linens.
When I asked the owner if the machines make a lot of noise, he asked me if I’d like to see one in action. Yes!
Here he is explaining how you have to organize things when you turn the machine off. He said that they take a ton of maintenance, being that they’re old. I can’t even begin to imagine, but I can totally appreciate the intricacy.
Here are a few looms that they stopped using in the 1970s. The owner told me that they used to produce about 85 cm (about 33 inches) a day.
I can hardly wait to set the tables and show you pictures. We are going to have things shipped over to us in the States probably around late September or October.
Work continues on the house in Longbranch while we’re away, and we will be busy with furnishing and squaring away permits when we get back at the end of September! Things are starting to take shape now…
Topics: Trattoria da Vincenzo, Longbranch | 5 Comments »
Estate Romana
August 13, 2010
For all of you new to the Italian language, that would be “eh-STAH-tay ro-MAH-nah” otherwise known as the Roman summer. A season, but also an event and a state of mind.
Why do I bring this up? Because I have almost started my two-handed countdown of the days ’til my first trip back to Rome in the last year and a half. We’re down to eleven days. I was back in March 2009 but only for 10 days, and with a 12-month old in tow, jet lag, and a stop at the children’s hospital for a fever… well, let’s just say it was less than relaxing.
So now I’m thinking, this summer has flown by and we have been so busy with the restaurant and B&B. The remodeling work on the house is coming along and will continue while we’re gone. Then when we get back in late September we’ll have to furnish and wait for all the bureaucratic stuff to get cleared, which hopefully won’t take too much longer.
If I find a spare moment or two on the other side of the pond, I’d be happy to reprise my role as Roman blogger. I’ll be honest, I think I might miss Rome some days even more than my native-born husband. No, my life was not all Eat-Love-Pray-ish, but at the same time I do miss living there.
So, if you have any special requests of something you’d like me to cover while I’m back in Rome, send them my way! I’ll do my best…especially if it involves eating gelato.
Topics: Trattoria da Vincenzo, Longbranch, Take a Roman Holiday | 6 Comments »
Bathroom Humor
August 12, 2010
I mean, really, what the heck was I supposed to title an entire post about our finished upstairs bathrooms?
Can I just tell you how super exciting this is? Honestly, folks, I never thought I would get this giddy about a toilet. What the heck, I never even knew that toilets had actual names, for goodness sake! But, in fact, they do. Our upstairs toilets are named Wellworth and our downstairs toilet is named Cimmaron. Apparently Cimmaron is a bit heavier duty (ie, more flushing power!) so therefore we will be putting him (her?) in our main restaurant bathroom. Wow. My world right now is just a *wee* bit surreal. And with three kids under three in three different sizes of diapers (!) man, let me tell you—there is just way too much bathroom humor in my home. Yikes.
Anyhoo, without further ado, let me show you around the place. This is the Puget Sound Room bathroom:
Before:
After:
And this is the Nautical Room bathroom:
Before:
After:
In a word?
Love.
Ah, how satisfying it is to start seeing things coming together. Next up: the famous original wood floor restored to natural beauty. The fun never ends around here, I am telling you!
Meanwhile, let’s all take a moment to appreciate the fact that the tribe and I are leaving for Rome in 12, that’s right–count ‘em–twelve, days. I feel that I am very deserving of a vacation this year for the following reasons:
1. Started my MSW (Master in Social Work) program at UW Tacoma and in one week will have successfully completed year one.
2. Carried two girls to 38 weeks (considered full-term), born at 6.5 lbs. and 5 lbs. 13 oz., and nursed them exclusively for six weeks. Gained 50 lbs. and lost 38.
3. Bought and furnished a new home, did the move and unpack and furnish at 34 weeks pregnant. –!!–
4. Survived the “terrible twos” with my son who is now 2 1/2 and becoming more bilingual by the day.
5. All the other stuff I simply can’t remember because…where was I?
In short, I am tired, oh so very tired, my friends.
Tired, but content. And looking forward to meeting many new friends. Thank you to all of you who have written to welcome us to the neighborhood and all of you who have written to put yourselves on our mailing list.
Now, get out and enjoy what’s left of summer!
Topics: Trattoria da Vincenzo, Longbranch | 4 Comments »
Facendo Progressi
July 31, 2010
Making progress, that is. And we are!
The first shower wall went up yesterday. Very exciting. I shudder to even show you the before:
Happily though, the after is well on its way to completion:
This is the bathroom in the Puget Sound room, which is going to have a sort of beige/green foresty kind of feel, with bronze fixtures in the bathroom and a white porcelain vessel sink on a mahogany vanity. Ah, such a breath of relief.
Before:
After:
Basically that space used to be a closet, but it was kind of odd because it cut practically 1/3 off of the room, and we figured for overnight guests there would be no need for an entire wall of closet space. Hence, a new area for a writing desk, a vanity, or whatever. We haven’t chosen all of our furnishings just yet, but we do have a couple of gems we’ve already purchased from a lovely little shop in Key Center (about 15 minutes from our place). Can’t wait to show you! We are hoping to bring them into the house maybe even this week.
Meanwhile, mythical Bob the amazing woodworker decided how to remedy our strange wooden ceiling. I haven’t really admitted this to you all yet, but frankly I was a little taken aback to find myself unable to see anything else in this room except for some kind of rustic outhouse look. I mean really, the only other place I had seen an unfinished ceiling like this was certainly in some kind of no facilities state park. Perish the thought! Bob to the rescue with a product of which I was ignorant to the existence up until a few weeks ago: TUNG OIL. Yes, magical tung oil made our ceiling dignified and presentable. Another huge sigh of relief. All together now: ahhhh…
Before:
After:
I realize that the “after” picture doesn’t really do it justice, but you’ll just have to see it for yourself.
In other news, tomorrow we are off to Estrella Family Creamery with one of our very dear Roman friends who is in town visiting. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of this farm, I can heartily recommend it. Alessandro swears that their version of Italian scamorza, which is called “Weebles” and is prize-winning, is as good as if not better *gasp!* than its original Italian cousin. Sacrilege, I tell you! But that, my friends, is why we must make the pilgrimage several times a year. I have no doubt this cheese will feature somewhere, somehow, on our menu at sometime. All those “some” words because the menu is basically going be at Alessandro’s whim each weekend, which will be an adventure for everyone!
Buon weekend a tutti!
Topics: Trattoria da Vincenzo, Longbranch | 2 Comments »
Painting, Flowers, and Sewage
July 21, 2010
What a lovely combination, no?
So I suppose we should just get the dirty work out of the way first.
And to demonstrate, I want to show you this:
On the bureaucratic front, we have been working on getting our septic system approvals taken care of, and this presented a mystery. When the excavator came out to dig up the tanks and inspect them, it turned out that one of the tanks shown on the asbuilt (don’t you love my technical language? that’s the septic system map so they know where all the stuff underground is hiding out) wasn’t anywhere to be found. Rather, I should say that the asbuilt had it pictured in the area equivalent to somewhere under the porch, clearly unreachable without having to dig stuff up.
We had the choice to either leave it alone because perhaps it didn’t really exist (the former owner said he didn’t think it existed) but at the same time, a former report said that it had been pumped.
Mistero!
In the end we opted for the big septic tank hunt, because God forbid there’s some mystery tank hiding out under our porch that might blow its top someday in an eruption of dire consequences. You can picture it. Like, Chevy Chase’s front yard in Christmas Vacation. Do we all remember that scene?
Oh, for the love! Where the heck would I get a hold of Randy Quaid if I had some septic misfortune occur?
Well, I am happy to report that all is well in septic-ville. Turns out, there was no tank. Photographic evidence:
Now, before you start thinking that all I’m going to talk about today is related to raw sewage, how wrong you are! That’s not very appetizing!
Let’s move on to painting, shall we? I painted the front entrance hall and … sigh … it is lovely.
It used to be a combination of light blue ceiling and dark blue walls, which was fun if you wanted to have a super-duper special underwater effect.
But alas, I didn’t. So now, I can enter the house surrounded in the peaceful tranquillity of SIENNA DUST. Yay! But folks, my jeans are covered in Porcelain Peach, Ceiling White, and a nice solid dose of Sienna Dust as well:
Which in the end is ok because someone actually asked me if I had bought them that way. Love!
And now, drumroll please, onto the flowers, which frankly I have no adequate words to describe so simply enjoy. Have a wonderful day!
Topics: Trattoria da Vincenzo, Longbranch | 2 Comments »
A sommelier? What’s that?
July 20, 2010
Pretty much the response I got continually when telling people that I was going down to PDX with Alessandro and the tribe this past weekend so he could take his certified sommelier exam.
Hence:
Main Entry: som·me·lier
Pronunciation: \ˌsə-məl-ˈyā\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural sommeliers \-ˈyā(z)\
Etymology: French, from Middle French soumelier official charged with transportation of supplies, from Old French, pack animal driver, probably alteration of *sommerier, from somier pack animal, from Medieval Latin saugmarius, from Late Latin sagma packsaddle — more at sumpter
Date: 1829
: a waiter in a restaurant who has charge of wines and their service : a wine steward
Let’s be clear, now. Alessandro will not be driving pack animals, and although calling him a saugmarius would provide hours of fun for the whole family, we’ll probably just stick with the snotty French word instead. It’s saw-mel-yay! Ha! For all y’all folks out there like me who don’t speak any French other than RSVP.
Anyhoo, all went well and so in the end Sor Canali has his certificate and to prevent him from getting too big of a head about all this, I have ensured that there are still plenty of dirty diapers to change. With six-month-old twins, the fun never ends! And I could have sworn that my older-by-one-minute little girl was lunging for Ale’s celebratory glass of wine this evening. As my MIL proudly proclaims, no wine until they’re seven! Sheesh.
So, please have a toast for us and enjoy a nice glass of wine while you wait for us to open and introduce you to many other nice glasses of wine. Can you hardly wait!?
Meanwhile, will you pat me on the back as well for finishing my downstairs bathroom project?
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Yes, I installed that faucet all by myself and it doesn’t even leak! Gold star for Shelley!!
And to all of you who are reading because you saw our fun and obnoxious 14 lb. banner on the side of the house, benvenuti! Welcome, welcome! Glad you are in the neighborhood.
Topics: Trattoria da Vincenzo, Longbranch | 2 Comments »
The Latest
July 16, 2010
Just in case you aren’t following us on Facebook, I wanted to let you all know that work is happily moving forward over in Longbranch and the energy in the house is very exciting!
First of all, we got our huge-mungous banner up. And no, it is not straight by any means, which is really irking my perfectionist sensibilities. In any case, 14 pounds and 30 feet later, here we are:
Are you so loving it? It is obnoxious but super fun and most importantly, readable from the boats! Come on over all you boaters, we’ll be waiting for you soon enough!
Remember the plates that the artists in Deruta were working on? Well folks, they sent us a little preview of our humble dish set. Sono rimasta senza parole… I am truly speechless on this one!
Meanwhile, back in the dining room, we transformed a lemony-yellow shade (walls and ceiling. mind you, so it was like being underwater in a Sweet Tarts factory) to what is officially known as “Porcelain Peach.” We call it “ahhhhh, che bello!”
Don’t worry, we aren’t keeping the blinds!
BTW, I also pulled off the black (black? why? why!?!) trim and painted some new baseboards that beautiful white Swiss Coffee shade. Now I just have to scrape the paint droplets off the floor. One thing we are not, while painting, is tidy. We basically did everything in our power to make sure that, despite the numerous drop cloths and random newspaper spread everywhere (seriously, it looked like we were trying to potty train a new puppy or something) … we desperately searched for any inch of floor which could be saturated with dripping paint. Argh. Tedium.
However, let’s look at the bright side. We have an amazing, and when I say that I really mean, AAAAAMAAAAAAAAYYYYYZZZZINNNG, artist working on our antique hardwood floors. This was a real coup. I had met Bob about a year ago when we started negotiations for this gem of a house, and told him that if we ever got it, I wanted him to build the beds for the bed and breakfast, because he makes this incredible artisan wood furniture, like beds made from logs. When I finally contacted him after we closed on the house, one thing led to another and we found ourselves happy to hear that he would be willing to restore our floors, trim our bedroom windows, build the beds, etc. etc. I can’t tell you how excited we are (and above all, how excited the house itself is), that Bob has pretty much set up a workshop in our upstairs common room. Yay! When I hear him sawing away, I know that all will be well wherever it comes to wood in our house.
Super meticulous. I seriously think that the house is cleaner when Bob is working than it was before we got the keys.
This is the beginning of a beautiful thing. Custom-replacing the missing boards that were filled in with plywood before, when they were hidden under the carpet. Next will come the sanding and then the resealing/polishing of the floors.
Folks, what can I say? Progress! We are moving forward on the bureaucratic front as well and hopefully we can time everything to still make this a reality for the fall.
Oh, and I should also note that “Nightmare on Ground Floor Bathroom Street” is officially over as well! Teal be damned! I am happy to report that I personally installed a faucet all by myself –!– I was feeling very plumber-ish and understanding perhaps why the so-called “plumber’s crack” exists. Some strange force of nature that overcomes the jeans when one crawls into the underbelly of the sink. Don’t ask me to explain it, it is one of the great mysteries of life, to be sure.
This weekend we are off to PDX as Alessandro has his big exam to get his sommelier certification. He already has his introductory certificate but wants to become a bonified sommelier. Needless to say, Casa Canali has been swimming in reds and whites lately, as he prepares for his blind tastings. Send some luck our way! I’ll let you all know how it turns out.
Now go look at your calendars and start picking that weekend in 2011 that you’re going to come visit us. Go on! We’ll wait!
Topics: Longbranch | No Comments »
