Fabriano, Paper Capital of the World

On the road to Fabriano

On Saturday we said 'Arrividerchi" to Agritourismo San Fellissimo and traveled towards the town of Fabriano. Along the way we left the wide open and flatter valley around Perugia and began climbing up into the thickly wooded mountains.

On the road to Fabriano

I was especially interested in going to Fabriano because it is the papermaking capitol of the world.


Paper has been made here since around 1300 AD. Handmade paper is still made here as well as machine made. The commercial paper is sent all over the world. In an old cloister is the papermaking museum:
Museo della Carta e Della Filigrana.

The convent where the paper museum is housed.

The paper makers of Fabriano invented many things after they learned the basics of papermaking from the Chinese. In past centuries only cotton and linen rags were used to make paper as those fibers lasted the longest.

Even so, in many countries right up to the 20th century official government documents such as deeds and contracts could only be written on vellum parchment made from animal skin. This was because the vellum would last much longer
than any paper.


At the papermaking museum we learned that it takes apprentices 7 years to learn their craft, especially the actual making of the sheet of paper. We also saw many types of water marks, which were invented by the papermakers of Fabriano. I was not allowed to take photographs inside any of the rooms of the museum, only outside in the courtyard. The museum does offer workshops of varying lengths about making paper and that might be a fun trip.

The museum shows how the rags are torn into small peices, then put into wooden tubs with water. There are large beaters made of wood that go up and down, three to each tub, with nails on their bottoms to shred the rags into pulp. The beaters would have originally been powered by a water wheel. This was a very noisy process. Since the museum is in a convent building without access to a river they use an electric motor for the demonstration.

Here I am standing next to some antique machinery for making paper.

The pulp is then transferred to a large vat where the paper sheets are actually made. The mold is a wood frame with a fine screen on it; the watermark is actually fine wire bent and sewn to the screen to make a decoration in the paper sheet. But the watermark is only seen in the finished paper sheet when it is held up to the light. Filling the mold with the pulp is the most important part of the whole operation and is what takes so long for the apprentice to learn to do well. It takes time to learn exactly how to dip the screen into the pulp and get just the right amount of pulp on the screen, then how to wiggle and shake the screen just exactly right so that the pulp settles evenly across the screen. Otherwise the sheet of paper might be too thick or thin or have an uneven thickness.

After draining the sheet for a minute the paper is turned out onto a piece of thick wool felt. The docent said these felts are very expensive, now costing about 200 euros each for what looks to be a piece about 20x30 inches (give or take a few). She also explained that in the medieval period, when the felts were totally worn out for paper making they were given to the wives of the workers who used the good parts for making jackets, bags and other things. The felts and paper sheets are stacked up and then they are put into a heavy wooden press and the screw turned until most of the water is squeezed from the stack. Then each sheet of paper is hung up to dry.

At this point the paper is still very absorbent and it is not possible to write or draw on it. Another innovation of the paper makers of Fabriano was 'sizing' the paper. Scraps of animal skins, hooves and such were melted in a huge copper pot until the gelatin they contained was boiled out. (pretty much the same gelatin you see on cold roast beef or that you use to make jello). Then the sheets of paper were dipped into this sizing and hung to dry again. After that they were rubbed all over with a wooden tool to help smooth out the surface. Then they are ready for writing or drawing on.

Of course today, there are machines that do many of these tasks. Even some handmade paper is finished by machines doing the pressing, sizing and drying. The museum had a lovely gift shop where they sell the paper that they make there. The gentleman there also directed us down the street to a book shop that sold commercially made Fabriano paper where we bought sketch books and souvenirs.

There was a park next to the museum and that was the way we walked to the shop. Beautiful chestnut trees and grass, along with a little tea house that was very unusual looking. It looks a bit like a Chinese pagoda, not the sort of thing you usually see in Italy. But we didn't have time to have a look and find out about it.

light through the chestnut leaves

We found a little coffee shop nearby and had lunch. Then back into the car to continue to The Retreat.

Balcony, Fabriano

Elise at the paper museum

wall pot- Fabriano

Perugia

Palace dei Priori, window circa13th century

We visited the Palace dei Priori which was built from the 13th-18th centuries and incorporated some other buildings, including 2 towers. The upper floors of the Palace are the National Gallery of Umbria, Italy's richest art collection. A maze of rooms with all sorts of paintings and sculpture.

view of Corso Venucci

Here is a view of Corso Venucci from the upper floors of the Palace.

entry hall Palace dei Priori

 The entry hall to the Palace contains the gift shop and ticket office to the National Gallery and has beautiful Gothic arches.

Perugia, the City

Street in Perugia

You can see from the photos how narrow the streets are. This particular one is closed to cars but even where you can drive they are this narrow. Remember this is the oldest part of the city; most of the buildings here are 500+ years old.

I am facinated by how they have built little bridges between the buildings, which you can see in this first photo. Some seem like open terraces and others are closed in and even look like they are part of an apartment.

built over the street, Perugia

You can see in this close up the lowest bridge in the other photo. To me it looks like it might have been just a walkway with the railing which was later filled in and built on top of.

The streets are very confusing, especially if you are driving, since you can't drive on all of them and some of them are one way. Of course they are all so narrow they don't seem large enough to have two way traffic, even if the cars are smaller over here!

We Arrive in Perugia

Agriturismo San Fellissimo

After about a 3.5 hour drive from Rome, we arrived just outside of Perugia at the Agriturismo San Fellissimo; this is our lovely bed & breakfast. A bit more than I expected; They make up the rooms each day as in a hotel, free wireless internet and a small fridge in the room.

A lovely breakfast in the morning on the terrace; fresh plain yogurt, freshly pick blackberries, croissants, about 6 kinds of preserves, (plum, kumquat, quince, others we couldn't name but were delish) along with a very light honey. along with tea, coffee and juice.

black berries grow everywhere and are ripe now

begonia on the steps

The B&B is up on a hill with beautiful views and lovely landscape full of fresh herbs and flowers.

pergola

This lovely pergola is on the terrace by the swimming pool.

elise

Elise meditates in the early morning light.

potato vine blooming in the garden

quince?

shadows

In Italy!

My friend Elise and I met up at the airport in Rome on Wednesday afternoon and picked up our rental car.It took a bit to figure out how it worked since while it is an 'automatic' as you can see it does not work quite the same as cars at home. Automatic here simply means you don't have a clutch to push in; but you still have to change gears yourself ;-)

We did manage to get out of Rome without too much trouble, it did help that Elise had brought her GPS. On our way to Perugia we saw this unusual wall. Actually I think it is probably the remains of an aqueduct; that is sort of a raised canal for moving water from one place to another.

Near where we parked to take pictures of the aquaduct was a cute little place with a garden so I took some pictures of it until the dogs came out, they were barking and we didn't want to bother anyone so left quick.

Lovely eggplants of different sorts

A small town we were driving through.

On My Way To Italy!

scorpion suckers

At the airport in Washington, DC I went in a shop to buy some water as you cannot bring even commercially sealed water through security. And I was greeted at the checkout counter by these suckers with scorpions embedded in them. yuck! The clerk said they sold a lot of them, they are very popular. I don't see the attraction, frankly. I don't think I could get one in my mouth!

scorpion sucker

From DC I flew overnight to Rome. A pleasant flight, I had an aisle seat and it wasn't too full so the girl that was in the window seat decided she needed more space and went and found herself another spot. That meant I had two seats and could actually stretch out a bit.

The flight itself was only 8.5 hours, but Italy is quite a bit ahead of Arizona.

dawn  over Ireland at 35,000 feet

As the sun rose we were just coming in over Ireland where we turned, crossing just over Cornwall, then over Spain and on over Italy to Rome.

More Calvin, Yellow Lab

Calvin, 18x24, acrylic on canvas, work in progress

I worked on Calvin some more yesterday before going to work. I think I am finally getting his face right. I would like to thank everyone for stopping by last week and encouraging me. I think I still need to work on those paws too. That one in the foreground really bugs me, I think I've figured out the problem; it doesn't look thick enough to me, what do you all think?

I've been trying to get finished because I fly out Tuesday morning for 2 1/2 weeks in Italy and really need to get this guy delivered before then!

Happy Paint Party Friday! Join the party by clicking the link over on the right.