I had a great trip and picked up some amazing new bags. I hope to have new pictures in the shopping cart within the next few weeks. If you can’t wait that long - please email me at lwortzman@gmail.com to see the new merchandise!
I look forward to seeing you soon.
Leslie
We’re off to Monte San Guisto and Avorio. It’s a sunny morning and the mountains are in full view with their snow-capped peaks. It’s hard to believe they’re right here with all the intense greenery and growth, but they are and we can’t look enough. Everywhere we looked there was extreme beauty. Jerry is dropping us at Avorio and going off to take pictures. When we get to Monte San Guisto I can’t imagine why anyone would live anywhere else! It is so magnificent and the roosters are crowing! We go in and meet Daniela, the one English speaker who’s English is still a challenge, and Lauro, the owner. Some of you have heard me describe him as a big guy with a balding head and hairy arms. Well he speaks NO English! They bring us to this room, filled with bags of all colors, sizes and shapes, they make us tea and get us water and they talk to us all the time while we are picking out bags. Here, not only do we pick out bags, but also we have to then decide on the colors. They are now doing bags in 2 tones that you will love! If you know the reversible handbags we have, there is now a bigger size and they will finish it with a zipper instead of the big charm. Magnifico! We picked out many new styles and then it was time for the colors. There are so many to choose from and we got some spring colors and then got a lot of their new fall colors, too. We are bringing home a few since I had some orders. If you look on the website, I will now have the Mardi bag in grey/silver, red and orange and a springtime green. It’s such a great bag! Lauro started this company himself in 1978 with just one bag! Now he has hundreds and hundreds of them! His son works with him and all their bags are handmade by the artisans that fill his community. They are packaged and sent from his warehouse. I can’t believe we were able to make decisions in a place that surrounded us with so many bags! I know you’ll love them! From there it was a whirl of sightseeing with Roman ruins, abbeys from the 1300s, and one more beautiful sight after another. The sun left us and the rain came but as we came back to Tolentino we decided to explore that town as well. The basilica was beautiful, the shops were great and then we ended the day at a small pizzeria with 62 types of pizza!
Today we leave Venice and head to The Marche region, which is more south along the Adriatic Sea. We decide to drive to Ravenna, which is half- way and have lunch and look around. They are famous for their mosaics. We saw mosaics but also found a place called the Ostium. It is a huge part of an ancient Roman house, which some fisherman found underwater!! So the Italians have taken this whole huge room and it’s belongings, including the mosaic floors, and re-built it in Ravenna. It was the most amazing thing we had seen. The Romans did work but conducted a lot of their business at the baths, but when they came home, they had whole sections of their homes devoted only to family, reading, meditating and self-care. Spirituality was key to their success. These rooms were devoted the list. We did take some pictures because we couldn’t resist, and if they come out well, I will post them, too. We left Ravenna about 4 and had a few more hours to drive. The world around us became very very green and very hilly with the Adriatic on the left and castles and farms on the right. Never have we seen farms that beautiful with old stone houses, green fields, some filled with flowers, and just all the rolling hills. We didn’t know where to look first! Finally night fell and we reached Hotel 77 in Tolentino. It was a regular looking hotel but Daniele greeted us and made us feel so welcome that we decided to stay there 2 nights and use it as our home base. Plus they had internet service! Daniele made us a reservation for dinner at Mia Casa and when we headed into town we were awed by how beautiful it was and that there was a castle whose walls surround the center of the village. Of course there was a basilica and a clock tower that gave canonical time along with world time and lunar time. We found Casa Mia down a small alleyway. We went in and of course they spoke no English. If you could have seen the gesturing and acting out to understand the menu…! So we ate well and after dinner the owner brought us a liquor for dessert. She actually brought one that was made in the region and bottled, and the same one that she had made herself. She wanted us to try both and compare! OMG! I could only do one but Jerry tried both, after which we limped home! So much laughter and friendliness found here in Tolentino. It was a non-shopping day today but tomorrow we go to Avorio in Monte San Guisto and then to the shoe museum and shoe shopping!
Got up, chatted with our co- hotel guests, told Anna we wanted to go to Murano which is the island where they make the famous Murano glass. All the hotels have arrangements with the different factories, so she told us she would call us a water taxi to take us. We then invited several of the other hotel guests to go with us. They picked us up and off we all went. We watched a chandelier being made and then set out in search of the perfect things! Murano is a bigger island than Burano and less colorful though still beautiful! Ariel bought things and I found a glass handbag! We thought we would spend half of a day there but stayed until 4. Boat back of course. We were amazed to see the snow covered Dolomite mountains in full view! It was a magnificent sight! We looked for a restaurant we had read about but we couldn’t find it and went in another that looked very interesting where you could see the kitchen from outside. We lucked into a table and when they took us in, it was so beautiful. It was in the oldest building in Venice and had low ceilings and flying buttresses and beautiful brick walls and ceilings. We just kept drinking in the beauty of the place as we enjoyed tomato soup with mussels, gnocchi with rabbit, potato ravioli and steak. From there, it was to the hotel. A long, great, satisfying Venice day.
Off to San Marco Square, The Doges Palace, The Bapistry, The Bridge of Sighs and finally the Peggy Guggenheim Art Museum. What a life she had! We had lunch there and the funniest thing is, she’s buried right there in the garden and next to her are buried all the dogs she ever owned. “Her babies” she called them. She seems to have had gone through a lot of dogs! Left there and took the boat to Burano island. That’s the island where people make lace by hand. It was a longer ride than we had thought, but so worth is! It was the most colorful, beautiful place I’ve ever been to. Jerry was beside himself with Kodak moments! I actually bought him some handkerchiefs with his initial on them but he said he couldn’t use anything so beautiful for it’s intended use. Oh well! Walked the whole island in very little time, but never stopped being overwhelmed by it’s beauty. The boat back was much faster and we walked over the Rialto Bridge looking for a restaurant that was recommended. We went into and it was the smallest restaurant ever. We asked and they told us they just wouldn’t be able to seat us! How refreshing was that honesty?! So we found our way to another restaurant near our hotel where we were the only Americans. I wasn’t sure about staying, but I’m glad we did. We had the Bugs Bunny salad (!), which was the best salad I’ve ever had, along with some pasta. It was the best food! We drank lots of wine and had a great time. Luckily it was close to the hotel with only 3 bridges in between!
Up in the morning and off to Venice! It’s a 3-hour train ride and we were meeting Jerry, my husband there. It was tough. Finding your in Venice is really difficult and there are bridges over the canals everywhere. We were in a hotel that was a bit of a walk from the train station and had about 5 bridges to cross. With luggage, a challenge. We finally got to Casa Pisani Canal and Anna met us there. Between my little Italian, my better French and her great Italian and French, we managed to communicate quite well. Our room was huge and beautiful overlooking the canal. Ariel went out on her own to explore – it is her favorite place in the world, and I waited for Jerry. He was 3 hours late, as he was on the wrong waterbus, or vaporatto. He saw much of Venice before even arriving! He finally arrived, Ariel came back, and now it was raining. It was also Easter so we decided to go to the one open restaurant near us, we relaxed, had a great meal and wine and we were ready to start our time in Venice.
Florence again. Off to Ponte Vecchio. My old vendor wasn’t there and the new one was creepy, so no bags there. We did the total tourist thing, shopping, sight seeing and people watching. Bought nuts freshly roasted in front of ours eyes, went to Santa Croce where Dante, DaVinci, Machiavelli and Michelangelo, just to name a few, are buried. Ariel was totally creeped out by the thought of dead people right there, but I loved it! Ate lunch at a great place with great cheeses and fruits and pasta. Then back to Donatello. Had some business to finish, spent a few hours, and helped him sell some bags to 2 wonderful women from Alabama and he offered Ariel a job for the summer. How great would that be? He then called his brother, who works at a very exclusive restaurant in Florence, got us a table and that’s where we went. We ate, we drank, and we had a great time. Love that Farshid!
Well we had quite a night! We got to Florence at midnight and had a cab take us to one hotel to get the keys for the other hotel we were staying at. It was actually a B & B and no one was up that late! It was hard to figure out how to get in and some lovely woman who actually lived downstairs from the B&B took pity on us and showed us how to use the elevator and how to get into our room. The elevator was about 2’x2’ and the walls were open so Ariel was a little freaked having to hold the button down the whole way up to make the elevator work and seeing the walls as she was going up! I walked. When we saw the room we were shocked. It wasn’t much bigger than the elevator with one small bed. There was no way! So the woman ended up breaking into another room for us and Ariel slept there and I slept in the small one. Thank goodness for Rick Steves, the travel guide. After some phone calls I called one great hotel in his book and they had a room! No one else did but I’m glad they did! So we made it through the night, checked out early and went to Loggiata dei Serviti. It was a beautiful hotel with it’s own piazza! It was a former monastery with big beautifully decorated rooms, flying buttresses and all! Great room, great beds, great location. Ahhhhh…
We headed to Donatello’s to see Alessandra and meet in person Farshid, the owner. Along the way we found new bags, handmade in Florence and met the designer who created them. They are such soft leather with very unique adjustable straps and we got some great colors. We also found some very different and colorful wallets. We finally find Donatello and Alessandra cried out “Ah pretty lady!” and kissed me! What a welcome. Then we finally met Farshid who I have been working with by email and through Alessandra. It was great. He has been a very generous man who makes the great wristlets I have, along with some beautifully crafted bags and he continued to amaze us. Wait until you see these bags we got from him. They are high fashion, high style bags and they are magnificent. They will be on the website. We also got 300 new wristlets in great colors. We spent about 6 hours at Donatello’s. When I remembered, thankfully, that another company was sending bags for me to the hotel from another part of Italy, he sent his friend to pick them up for me and then sent all the bags out for me. Wait until you see THOSE bags, too! Even Farshid thought they were magnificent. All hand-painted, colorful bags. So, all in all an enormously successful day. Once again, lunch at 4! Dinner at 9 at a great place and we met Ben, who was traveling from London alone and he joined us for dinner. He is a fashion designer and a great dining companion. We exchanged emails and vowed to keep in touch!
OK, so now we catch the train for Bologna. We are going to see 2 companies there. One we have worked with, one we have not. We are hoping to be able to do both in one day so we can get to Florence.
It’s 1 hour 40 minutes to Bologna and the train is sold out so we sit in between cars and read! Why not! We get there, store our bags at the station, grab a cab and get to Entra in 15 minutes! To our delight, we pass Aprile along the way so we are thrilled to know that we can do both and they are so close!
Entra is new to us, yet have sold 3 of the 5 bags I just got from them before I left. They are a brother and sister team. When we walked in the door, we just looked at each other and our eyes lit up. There were hundreds of designs and all in at least 4 colors! It was like handbag heaven! It is Federico who greets us and speaks English. He brings us huge rolling bins in which we put all the things we want. A red this, a white that, a yellow one too. Gray, beige, suede, patent… it was a smorgasbord! We were there for hours, filled 3 bins and had a ball! We said good-bye to our new friends and walked over to Aprile! How great was that that they were neighbors!
Donatello greeted us like old friends and again we were given huge bins to fill. The colors and styles of Aprile have always amazed us but they have outdone themselves. The yellows, purples and greens are just beautiful! So we again filled the bin and are thrilled with what we got. Donatello was the only one who spoke English as was Federico at Entra. Seems that each company only has one English speaker. Donatello’s father, who started the company, was there as well and was such a sweet man.
After 6 hours of shopping, they called us a cab, we ate magnificent gnocchi across from the train station and then headed to Florence very late at night. Until tomorrow.
Woke up early to meet Patrizia. Patrizia makes beautiful handbags. We met last year during the Milan show. Patrizia used to be a designer for Valentino and her partner was a designer for Gucci. When both companies left to do their work in China, both women decided they did not want to do that so they opened their own company. They do their own picking of leathers, designing and manufacturing. Some of you may remember her work: the Roso D’Oro, the yellow bag with the bronze and bone shoulder strap, the white suede clutch and others that sold immediately. It was so nice to see her again and she showed us a beautiful green bag with wooden handles built for your arm, or your hand. It’s got lots of room and the color is striking green. There ‘s also a soft suede camel color bag with a wide ribbon bow and strap that we loved. We talked about designing a private label bag together and she gave me much information on the process of building a handbag.
FYI:
To build a handbag, a detailed design is drawn. The designer takes it to a manufacturer and he does a cardboard replica of the bag. This replica is hand-cut and done to the exact millimeter of the design. The designer must purchase this prototype for anywhere from 350 euros to 5000 euros. Sometimes even more! Once it is cut out, the designer brings the leather and the manufacturer puts the leather around the prototype in a way that must be perfect so that there is no extra leather. That is the way they figure out how much leather is needed for each bag. No more, no less. From there, a metal prototype is designed and cut to be used in the creation of the final bag. The more bags that are made, the less the prototype costs and the mass produced designers sell their prototypes to other designers whose products are authentically Italian.
Each authentic Italian handbag is assigned a number and is registered with the Italian government