Pietrasantra

Yesterday we went to this amazing place about a half hour away called Pietrasanta. I'll admit that I wasn't so excited to go at first because I didn't fully understand what was there to see… Turned out to be one of those surprise trips that was well worth it. Pietrasantra is a town known for their marble, specifically for being the seller that Michelangelo bought from for his statues from. We had to first take a bus for about 10 minutes and then get in this cheesy train car for the rest of the way. When we got there we walked to the main plaza which had several pieces of art. The whole town was exactly what most people picture (or at least I did) when they think of Italy, little stores, people walking about casually, churches/cathedrals, works of art/statues throughout, mopeds, and just a general sense of calm and friendliness with rolling hills and mountains to complete the backdrop.



We walked to these small studios and one of our coordinators arranged to go inside. We first walked through the gate and saw all these huge chunks of marble, some in the process of being shaped, others just marked for the project. Once we were in to the artist shop we saw these incredible mosaics that they were working on. In this room were about 5 people all with boxes of these little tiles, a little chisel, and glue. The way they made the mosaic was to blow up this picture until it's all pixilated, then cut it into pieces about 1 by 2 foot pieces, and match all the colors (we're talking about 20 different shades of blue for a sky), and then glue them to this paper. The artist explained that when they are installed, the place on the wall is glued, and then they place the pieces together with the paper on the outside. Then they peel the paper off after it's all glued together. This way the surface is flat. To put it simply, they make the mosaics backwards! Maybe no one else thought that was interesting, but I found it fascinating. Get used to these random little facts :) He showed us several that were in process and some complete that were about 20 feet tall and 10 feet wide. He takes these pieces and sells them for a very pretty penny all over the world.


This was one of those situations were the language barrier was an issue. I would have loved to be able to talk with the guys working to comprehend then process even better. We all got along with out communication, mainly because they could see our excitement and appreciation for their hard work. Lots of smiling and hand gestures were exchanged. I can understand a little bit due to knowing some Spanish, but it's still quite a gap. Luckily 4 hours of someone speaking straight Italian to you helps grasps in grasping some general concepts. I'm hoping by the time we get to Florence I'll be able to ask and understand enough to really question artists and others about this kind of thing.
Well, now that I've finally caught up/set up this whole blog thing I'll be able to keep it going! Tomorrow we have our first Italian Quiz and then off to Pisa for the afternoon!! Ciao!

beautiful!

they're everywhere!!!

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