Back to Nove! - the town of ceramics and Ceramiche Bressan

When I say “Back to Nove”, you may be thinking, ‘oh, she’s going back for the second time’. False. This post is about my fifth excursion to Nove, and yes I already have my 6^th trip scheduled, and yes that means I have averaged one trip per month of my stay in Italy thus far… Now that we have my gross love of Nove cleared up, we shall proceed.

            On one of the military spouse facebook pages I am a part of, someone mentioned a ceramic factory I had not yet been to, so I made note of it and figured that we would take a stop there and see what it had to offer.

            I plugged in the location on my iphone and off we went. This place wasn’t actually in the town of Nove, but right next to it in a smaller town called Pianezze. I was beginning to doubt the accuracy of its location, as we were driving through what seemed to be a residential area, and when it crept up on me I nearly passed it by as it was a rather discreet location.

Their main sign was engulfed in an overgrown bush and we nearly missed it!

This place was unlike the others I had been to, as it appeared to be all factory/workshop, as compared to others, which were part factory and part store where they would sell some of their products. My mother and I were searching for the “store” part, but never came across it. When we inquired about it, a worker there said ‘oh yes’, and led us upstairs. The room was fairly large, and very well organized with the sets on the glass shelves. We found it odd that there was only one of everything, I then picked up a piece and found that it left a dust ring around it’s former location. These pieces hadn’t been moved in a long time. After observing a table and chairs at the head of the room, we quickly realized the room we were in, was a show room. A place where larger companies would go to see what they can do and then bargain over prices and quantities. Oops, we were no such company. 

One of the many displays to look through. 

The meeting table at the head of the room

We made it clear that we were no such company, simply individuals interested in ceramics. They were fine with that and then let us tour the facility. We then got to see the step-by-step process of how these world famous ceramics are made!

Here are the ladies making the plates and bowls by hand. They would then set the stacks of freshly made bowls into large carts to dry. 

Adam on one of his many Italian field trips! Lucky kid :) 

Here, three of the workers take the dried ceramics and paint them

It was so fun to watch them work! Here a woman paints berries at a rapid pace. She was pro. And they were very pleased to be photographed. I guess giving personal tours isn't very common and they enjoyed showing off their work! 

This man's focus were the lemon ceramics

After painting the ceramics, they dry once again as they wait to be glazed and fired.  

Here is a rack of ceramics fresh from their massive oven. This was about as close as I dared get for a picture as the heat waves coming off of it were intense! They would wheel the racks outdoors to cool before they were packed and shipped. 

We enjoyed getting to have a personal tour of the ceramic shop and seeing the step-by-step process of how the world famous hand made ceramics are crafted. It amazes me that they can mass-produce so many ceramics and they are all made by HAND! It was crazy to watch them work. It was a very educational experience and at the end, we got to purchase some ceramics! They don’t normally do individual sales so they rather made up some prices on the items I picked and because I’ve been to Nove so many times, I know I was getting them at a steal!

As we were leaving, one of the men handed me their card and told me to tell my American friends about them, and I promised I would. So here is a post dedicated to them. If you ever happen to know of a company looking to purchase ceramics hand crafted in Italy, forward them here! As they are just outside of and not in the center hub bub of Nove, they don’t get as much attention and business, however their work is just as good as any other factory I’ve been to, and cheaper too! And never before have the people been so kind as to give us a personal tour. What an experience!

A blurry picture I took of their card :)

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.