A Carpenter's Workbench gets a new lease of life as our kitchen table

A few months ago I posted a photo of a re-invigorated carpenter's workbench which we fell in love with at the Arezzo antique market. Well, here is a photo of a similar one which we also found recently at the same Arezzo monthly antique market, and, it has now become our 'new', but very old, kitchen table. A thick piece of glass has made what may have been an impractical bench into something completely usable, very comfortable, and indeed supremely beautiful. We love its character - the 2 timber vice that have tightly held hundreds of pieces of timber over the years, are still attached and working, and the visible recesses that held the tools of the carpenter's trade, bear the worn signs of their past life. It is a table that each time we sit at to eat a meal or drink a cup of coffee, it makes us smile thinking of its past history and new beginning. It looks very much at home in our beautifully imperfect ancient apartment! 

 

 

 

Lacole Casa Italiana - surely the world's best warehouse of repurposed Architectural elements

I love researching far and wide to uncover interesting and intriguing places in our local Umbrian/Tuscan community, places that excite my senses with the quality and depth of what they offer, well 'PORTE DEL PASSATO' Via della Liberta, Pistrino di Citerna (PG), and its sister store 'LACOLE CASA ITALIANA' a few hundred metres down the road, both fit this category.

 

Lacole Casa Italiana is an enormous warehouse with the most amazingly indepth product display of beautiful recycled architectural & interior design elements imaginable. Do you require a jaw dropping marble fireplace surround to finish your home?...or 70yr old majolica wear concrete tiles for that family room renovation?.....or perhaps a centuries old marble sink to complete your bathroom, or an antique stone archway - my list could go on and on, - well this is undoubtedly the place to find them, and not only will you find them, but you will also have a bevy of choice! I love these type of warehouses but never have I seen the quantity and quality of repurposed architectural items that this place has to offer - nor have I ever seen the items displayed and catalogued with such precision and attention to detail - this place is most definitely a labour of love by its owners and the photos I took below are truly just a fraction of what they offer - it did feel a little like an elaborate movie set, yet everything we saw was certainly available for purchase. 

 

I admit to seriously eyeing off the majolica ware concrete tiles - can definitely see them in my soon to be started house extension as an integral element of the kitchen/family room  - just currently working out how I can get them back to Australia, but where there is a will.....

 

Porte del Passato, its sister store down the road, cleverly uses these collected old materials and up-cycles them into useful and beautiful furniture/kitchen units/internal doors - in fact I have no doubt they could work around what ever you required to complete your space. Their craftspeople repaint and rework the pieces to rejuvenate them on a scale I have not seen previously and their attention to detail seem to know no bounds! 

Both places are inspiring and I feel certainly worth going out of your way to visit if these type of things interest you ....... you will definitely find unusual and exciting product, but just don't expect to find a bargain... though I have to point out that with the obviously enormous effort the owners have put into breathing new life into these old items, the prices are totally understandable.

 

Internal doors repainted and rejuvenated at PORTE del PASSATO

Old cupboard repainted & fitted with rejuvenated marble sinks in a Carrara marble
benchtop makes a beautiful bathroom unit for a refurbished ancient home

 

 

Arezzo Antique Market - a fabulous way to spend the day!!

Arezzo's monthly antique market is definitely one of Italy's best Antique markets. Held on the weekend of the first Sunday of the month, it is a wonderfully eclectic mix of furniture, art, vintage textiles and bric a brac. One of our favourite activities is to wander it on a Saturday morning and over our many visits, we have developed a ritual for the day - we arrive early (more choice), have  a quick espresso or 2, before wandering all the streets ensuring we visit our favourite stalls, then around 1pm, stop for lunch at Osteria L'Agania, a simple trattoria with a changing seasonal menu of locally produced product. On this visit to Osteria L'Agania we ate home made pasta with generous quantities of fresh truffles shaved over the top, and the most delicious fresh porcini mushrooms we have ever tasted - prepared by simply frying them. We were told that this season of porcini mushrooms has been one of the best ever and my taste buds can certainly testify to this.  

This particular visit coincided with an art festival in the city which presented itself in delightfully obtuse and unexpected installations - one a huge cascading waterfall of books from the window of a building in the main mall, another a sea of old clothes strung high in the ceiling space of the colonnade around the main piazza. I love the fact that Italy allows young artists the opportunity to display their art in such a public forum - these pieces often push the boundaries of what many may consider art to be, but that is exactly the point - it continues the discussion about culture and engages a wider audience. Without doubt it injected a sense of fun, fascination and enquiry into the city of Arezzo - and in the end this creates public spaces with a wonderfully inclusive vibe.

Some market visits are more fruitful than others, but we always manage to find something that makes its way back to our home in Citta della Pieve. On July's visit we bought far more than we intended but are thrilled with our unexpected purchase! For the past 2yrs we always visit a stall holder in the main piazza who often stocks refurbished old carpenter's workbenches ready to begin a new life as a table or console. Although not really in need of a new kitchen table, this weekend, the price and the quality of the work bench he had totally captivated us, so early Sunday morning, it was delivered into our kitchen....and it looks spectacular!! We have had a piece of glass made for the top, to cover the recesses for the carpenter's tools to become a supremely gorgeous & practical kitchen table. The 2 original vices are still in place, and the cut out recesses for upturned tools and the solidity of the timber would all no doubt have many a story to tell. It is this table's history and previous working life that we totally love.

We also managed to find another 2 pieces of artwork for our ever growing gallery walls in both our bedroom and living room - all of €15 each, they are framed in elaborate gilt frames, and bought from one of our favourite stalls, (the main reason we always arrive early on a Saturday is to get first pick of this stall holders artworks as they are always interesting and well priced!) Individually, none of  the art pieces are especially grand, but en-masse they make a beautiful mosaic gallery wall.

Many of the pieces in our Citta della Pieve home have come from this excellent monthly antique market and a significant part of the fun was the hunt to discover and uncover.

Arezzo was hosting a art installation across the whole city, and the hanging clothes in the background of this photo are part of this

An Art installation in the portico of the main Piazza

Our new kitchen table! The history of this piece compliments our centuries old
apartment and we are thrilled with this purchase

Unfortunately I missed out on this antique marble font with pedestal (should have visited before lunch!),However  I intend to watch for another in the future as it would make a sensational powder room sink. The price was not much more than a ordinary white porcelain one.  Obviously though the trick is getting it back to Australia!

Timber doors from an old convent - € 300 for the pair they were really beautiful and I thought good
value with a wonderful story to tell

Our regular lunch venue - delicious seasonal food

Home made pasta with shaved fresh truffle - delicious!

Fried fresh Porcini mushrooms with Tuscan white beans - food doesn't get much better than this! 

Product changes regularly but there is always treasure waiting to be discovered

A wonderfully fun book sculpture - part of the art installations throughout the city of Arezzo

And here is the finished product in our kitchen at Citta della Pieve - we are thrilled with the results

Another shot of our new, but very old, kitchen table in situ

Porte Vanves Market Paris

Now back in Australia for a short while, I am posting a piece I wrote on the Porte Vanves market in Paris when we visited there in February this year.


Porte Vanves is very pleasant weekend market worth visiting for a stroll in the sun on a sunny day in Paris. The vendors unload truck loads of treasure (and trash, as there is definitely both) each Saturday and Sunday about 7am and pack up and leave by 1pm. There is an array of items faded from their original glory - tarnished silver, old photos, frames, but if you fossick through the various stalls you have every chance of finding something to delight you. It is worthwhile arriving early (harder to do when the temperature is below freezing like our visit in February this year) but there is no doubt the best items do go first. The area is a not particularly attractive but the market ambience is alive as tourists and locals alike hunt for a treat. I did spy some fabulous Regency style bronze wall mounted sconces, (very heavy bronze and nice fine detail) which would look fabulous somewhere, but had no real need for them so didn't try to bargain the vendor down from his (too high) price. I took a photo to remind myself of the 'one that got away' though - needless to say better on my pocket also. My husband, L did however buy some lovely wall lights for his office - he has surprisingly taken very well to this market hunting - particularly for someone who aligns shopping to a dental visit!

Our Home in CITTA DELLA PIEVE is completed & ready for rental!!

After 4 months, driving thousands of kilometres and searching in countless markets, shops and little known villages, we have finally arrived at the completion of renovating and furnishing our home on the Umbrian Tuscan border. We are thrilled with the outcome and have thoroughly enjoyed the process of transforming our dream to a reality. The exceptionally comfortable beds are made, the wine glasses ready and now we are keen to have our first holiday renters enjoy the delights of this house and the atmospheric village in which it is situated. There is much to do in and around Citta della Pieve - all the well known towns in Tuscany and Umbria are within easy reach - Orvietto, Siena, Cortona, Montepulciano to name just a few. Rome and Florence are within a 1.15hr fast train trip from Chiusi (which is 15mins drive down the hill from our village), and of course the sumptuous produce for which this area is renowned, is at the doorstep - so what are you waiting for??

The original palazzo this apartment is a part of, was built in about 1650, and divided into 6 apartments about 25years ago. It has many of the original architectural elements, very thick stone walls, ancient timber beams and cotto floors that over the years have become quite uneven. We bought the apartment from the gentlemen who had owned it since it was divided 25yrs ago, and as artists they had painted many of the walls and ceilings with great detail. We chose to retain a portion of this work, removing the brighter of the colours they had painted, but our biggest change to the interiors has been to make them feel more in context with the age of the building and its Italian heritage. We have also gone to a great deal of effort to source beautiful chandeliers for every room as when we bought it there was no overhead lighting at all, and the addition of these makes the places feel significantly more sumptuous. The remainder of the furniture is largely market finds, some antique, some more recent, but the mix is what makes it interesting and extremely comfortable and relaxing. There is also a beautiful loggia - an outdoor covered space which has lovely views to the valley below and a perfect place to enjoy a glass of local wine. 

Here are the first photos of our house - we are in the process of completing the website, but the house is ready for rent, so if you are contemplating a holiday in this part of the world, send us an email, we will delighted to hear from you! info@educationcpe.com 

View from the loggia to the valley below

Living room with view to Main Bedroom on right and Loggia on left

Living room with view to Entry room. The fireplace is in working order but with central heating it is only required for ambience, not warmth

All of the artworks, in their original frames were found in markets across France and Italy. This wallhanging on the right, was bought in Morocco and is an old wedding blanket handmade by a woman from the Berber tribe.

We bought this beautiful handmade Beni Ourain (a Berber tribe) rug, on our recent trip to Morocco and it is superbly soft underfoot and gives a lovely texture to our living space. 

Entry with view to 2nd bedroom

Gorgeous candelabra 

These beds were sent all the way from UK as we wanted beds that could be either 2 King singles or convert to a Queen bed by zipping the mattresses and locking the bases in place - so this can be another Queen bed if required

These furniture pieces were found in Antique markets across Italy and France

This large map of Europe enables you to plan the rest of your journey while enjoying a meal 

Kitchen with view to the loggia

The Main Bedroom has an exceptionally comfortable Queen size bed and french doors opening to the covered loggia 

There is plenty of space in the bedrooms for all your luggage 

View from living room to kitchen

The Loggia 

View from the loggia

Citta della Pieve