A Girls Day in Nove, Italy - Home of World Famous Ceramics

A Warranty, explaining how everything was expertly 
hand made on location. The picture on the left is 
what you would see if you wandered around the factory 
portion downstairs; the makers in action! 

      On Friday, one of my girl friends decided to organize a girls trip to Nove! Nove, a town about two hours drive from base, is famous for its hand crafted ceramics and I've been told the town has over 100 shops selling their hand-made pottery. 
      The first shop we went to was called La Ceramica VBC, which looked like a large warehouse. A large factory took up the entire bottom floor where the pottery was made, fired, painted, glazed, sold and shipped. Shelves of partially made products lined the walls, and you could walk around and see the creators in action. 
      This shop is one of the more famous ones, and the upstairs had the pottery for sale divided into sections by brand. I turned over one piece to see the brand: "Williams-Sonoma"stamped there. "Uh-oh" I thought, hastily glancing around as I quickly tucked the plate back into the shelf. Was this a legal operation? This must be a fake! haha, but no, it was the real deal, and I had to remind myself that this is where I live now. I live in Italy, the land where they make the beautiful pottery Americans buy and ship to themselves. There were many other brands, such as Tiffany's, and Lenox and ceramics you could find sold at Macy's. I found it interesting that all the dishes were hand made at this business, but then stamped with different brands based on the different style produced. A visit here to Nove means that I can buy them at factory prices, for a fraction of the price one would find them for in the states!

Shelves, brimming up to the ceiling
 in unique pottery pieces. 

My friend Anya bought a set of these beautiful dishes.
I really liked this pattern, and if my hubby and I didn't
already own a dish set I could easily have gone
for these as well!

I highly enjoyed the striking mosaic dishes and vases, as those are characteristic of Italy and remind me of the famous ones we saw in the Basilica di San Marco in Venice. 

Many of the mosaic pieces depicted various cities found in Italy. I intend to get this plate the next time I go back.

Or perhaps I'll get something painted in this watercolor
style, also depicting towns and Italian landscape.  

Often they would have shelves of a certain set/print,
and next to it they would have a table set up
with some of the pieces, showing you what your table
might look like if you purchased these pieces.
I appreciated the displays, as it gave me further ideas
of how one might arrange or add pieces. 

A table set up with the lovely Olive pattern.
 I thought this was an attractive and simple theme. 

These are the carts provided for shoppers, a
large rolling shelf rack to fit one's pottery
selections. Here my friend Anya rolls her
newfound prizes through the store. 

Lemonade from a lemon pitcher? How quaint. 

Below is a seafood themed set I thought was adorable and took way too many pictures of. 

I spared you the rest and only posted four. If I were ever quite wealthy and had a beach house, 

I think I'd get this set to serve my seafood in. 

                              All their pieces are made of terra marrone, a brown clay found in the town of Nove. 

A fancy table setting

 After La Ceramica VBC, we traveled to other various shops. The shop interior depicted in the picture below, was in a peculiar building that spanned a river. It was an odd sensation to look out the window and see a river rushing underneath you while being inside of a building! This store seemed old, and I liked walking on the uneven, cracked tiles and observing the owners at work in the back room, taking pieces out of the oven and painting on already dried pieces. 

Here my friend Kirnan observes the hand painted roof tiles. These tiles, if painted on the convex side,
are hung from walls as decoration. If painted on the concave side, they can also be hung,
but are more often used on tables to hold baguettes. 

       The final store we went to was Ceramiche Larry S.K.G., which is well known for their personalized pottery and ability to copy patterns of pieces purchased at other places onto items that shop may not have sold. (For instance, say you wanted a matching pitcher for your dishes, but that was not offered with the set you bought. Larry's would do their best to replicate the pattern onto a pitcher for you) I really liked this shop and the idea of personalization. I hope to go back and get a few items with the name "Coe" on them, as well as a little blue piggy bank with Adam's name on it. 

Some good things to know when you come to shop in Nove: 

 - Cash is best! You will get a significant discount on your items if you don't use a credit card. (They said something about having to write it up and file it in their taxes, not sure, didn't catch it all, but in short, bring cash!) 
 - Also, for those proficient at bartering, you can often negotiate some prices. (Obviously this works better if you're purchasing a large amount of ceramics and have decent Italian phrases under your belt)
 - Don't forget about Riposo! (The Italian midday siesta) Shops will start closing around noon, and will remain closed for the next 2-3 hours, so start shopping early and plan lunch for Riposo time. (Though only select places will be open for eating at that time)

           In the end I only bought one item, and that was a gift for a friend's wedding fast approaching in June, not for my husband and I. (I got it personalized as well! But as she sometimes reads this blog I cannot divulge further details) After seeing an overwhelming amount of pottery, I knew it would be best to take pictures, notes, and price ranges, and to ponder/sleep on the items I thought might make a nice addition to our home and come back at a later time to get them. This way I could also run the pictures by my hubby in case he opposed some of my choices. (Generally bright colors and patterns are not something he's attracted to, so it's a good idea to be thoughtfully selective so he's not disappointed when I arrive home with a dish set he doesn't want to eat off of.) 
            My girlfriends, however, purchased many dishes and pieces, each spending over 100 euro. Although they likely won't get the chance to come back, as each of them PCS (relocate to a new base) at various points this year. (*Sigh, the sad part of the military. Making friends that disappear within months of meeting them. Ah well, we can keep in touch and new friends will move here in their place!) I have nearly four years left here and am quite likely to visit again. 


       We concluded our day with lunch at a place that was very popular and delicious, though I didn't see a name posted anywhere. (Although as we dashed through the rain it would have been easy to miss) The parking lot was packed and had a large amount of trucks, and we knew that if this is where the truckers stopped, it must be fairly inexpensive and tasty. We were right on both counts, and for 9.50 euro I was able to get a salad and two courses. (And no Dad, I wasn't able to get pictures of my food... lol. Sorry.) The restaurant was almost entirely men (as it was filled with truckers) and the four of us ladies (and Adam of course! whom I forgot to mention was wrapped in my Moby for this trip) got to sit by the fireplace as the rain could be heard pattering on the rooftop. 
     It was an excellent day with friends, and now I've gotten to see Nove and the beautiful handiwork the local Italians produce there.