When I first read about Italian Stories, for a second, I felt like I was a child again… when I was walking through the streets of big cities, holding my mother’s hand, getting enchanted by watching street artists portraying famous faces, carving wood and modelling the clay, having everyone’s eyes on them. As if time stopped and I got captured by the magic of those gestures that seem so easy performed by their expert hands. When, after several minutes of “hypnosis”, my mom’s handshake brought me back to reality to make me understand it was time to start walking again, I remember I only had some thoughts in my mind: “When I grow up I want to be a painter“, “How I wish to learn to carve wood!“, “I wonder if Santa can give me a pottery wheel!“.
Now that I’ve discovered Italian Stories I know some of my childhood dreams can come true!
Italian Stories is a website, still in its beta version, that wants to bring together the workshops of Italian artisans with fans and travellers. This is not aimed to sell products, but to sell an authentic and real experience: a workshop/guided tour in the labs of master craftsmen, to discover the real Made in Italy!
A new type of tourism not only to visit but also to understand the country, since:
“the characters of the “Italian history” are the artisans, who, custodians of a series of values and cultural knowledge, are a good key to understand our country.“
In Milan, for instance, Paola invites you to her laboratory, a step from the new Naviglio Darsena, to transform “pieces of “technological archeology”, seemingly insignificant and destined to landfill, to unique and personalized jewels, whose transparency celebrates the high-tech spirit of the XXI century, and propels those who wear them towards the future era of recycling and cyber existence. “
It’s all very simple.
Register on the website with your e-mail or Facebook account and search for the experience you are interested in, according to the place or the kind of main material to be used ( paper, felt, metal, ceramic, stone, wood… ), or ask for a tailored one. You immediately get the information you were looking for: type of experience, name of the artisan, location, date and time, spoken languages, useful advices and referenced target; many workshops and guided tours, in fact, are suitable also for kids!
Book online through secure payment, an email will be automatically delivered to your inbox as a reminder, and if you feel like you can get in touch direcly with the artisan himself.
That’s it!
Enjoy (or make it a gift to somebody) the emotion of being the real protagonist of a first-person experience, and, once finished, give it feedback on the Italian Stories website.
If you are an artisan and you would like to tell the story of you work, register on the website and open your doors to the visitors to show them the precious art of the Made in Italy.
