Bimonte

Hi all,

This was in draft form before I went away and just couldn't find one more minute to finish it before Spring break.

Here we are at Bimonte which is a cameo shop with my friend Christian. He was one of the first local I met and he immediately took me under his wing. He tried to find a Rotary club meeting for me and was just as frustrated as I was!

David with Christian and his Dad in front of their shop. This is a family business that has been passed down for many generations.  Nine relatives are working today with him but not all here.

We took the class on a field trip..

Here Christian is explaining all the shells and the parts that he uses to make the cameos.  The color on the inside is what you see on the cameo. Christian explained there are different color grades for the outside shell too. Really white towards brown.

Here he explains about putting the shell on the stick with a special wax to make it easier to carve.

In the next few slides, Christian is showing us the cameos from the different kinds of shells.

The shop also works in coral. Here are two necklaces.  Necklaces such as these sell in the tens of thousands of euros.  It is difficult and rare to obtain red coral in beads the size of these!

Here are some beautiful examples of his cameos.

Thank you, Christian, for your welcoming tour and your continued hospitality.  ...a great cup of espresso!

Ciao :-)

Casa del Caffe Giuseppe Maresca tour

 Our tour today took us to the family business of Olga's husband. The roasters of the bean of coffee..Ahhhhhh! Coffee.

Here we arrived to have the process of roasting explained by Michel.  Coffee roasting  has a Maresca family tradition since 1848; before the unification of Italy in 1861.  The current business has been run for 3 generations.  You are looking at the beans in front as they come in from being imported. Olga explained that back when the grandfather was doing this, that the beans came from wherever they wanted to do business directly. They had a direct line for purchasing, but today the beans must be purchased through a broker and mostly from Costa Rica.

In the commodities market, Coffee is 2nd to oil. 

The different beans are laid out for display.  The little machine here is the one that Michel uses to test the coffee.

This is the original roaster that they used. The back unit is a heating chamber for roasting.  Wood fires are used under.  The round cylinder in the front is used for cooling the beans.
The process is the same today.  The Arabica flavor is sweet and comes from beans from Latin America. The wood in the fire is strong wood from the orange and lemon trees.  The Robosto beans come from India and North Africa and the wood that is burned is sweet wood: peach and cherry.  The tempreratures of the wood fire are carefully monitored and the smoke helps to flavor the beans.  The green beans have no flavor.  Michel is working on producing a new coffee that is chocolate and is called "Michella"

This machine is the one used today for roasting.  Behind Olga is the wood bin with the different kinds of woods.

The old fashion coffee roaster which goes over the fire and gets hand cranked.  The process is described as being similar to popping corn.

Ready for sale. The packaging has the logo used since 1932 representing coffee from the islands and the outline on the lower part of the bag represents Mt. Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples. 

On the back of the package is the story of the family. "On the 6th of August 1918, while Mrs. Maria Laura Gargillo was roasting a new blend of coffee in her shop on Via Cosa Rosa in Piano di Sorrento, which she ran with her sister Concetta and her father Giuseppe, she stared to feel the symptoms of birth pange.  Even though she was expecting a baby, she didn't want to give up roasting her coffee.  She said that her son had to come to life smelling that wonderful fragrance. For this reason, she asked the midwife to join her in the shop and help her give birth to her son.  On the 7th of August, at sunrise Giuseppe was born.  Since then, and for more than 80 years, Giuseppe Maresca, has created, tasted and let people taste the coffee blend that carry his very own name!"

This is the view of the rest of the plant. Below are the packages ready to go. I asked why the different colors and he said they go to different countries,  This is a very small plant with one other employee.  They produce fine coffees that are shipped all over the world. G. Maresca Coffee is available throughout Europe, Australia, China and the New York area of U.S.A.  China represents a new and growing market. 

We ended our tour with fresh-brewed cups of espresso.  My first....It was quite delicious. That is how most Italians drink their coffee. It is served with a package of sugar.  If the sugar settles slowly into the coffee, then it is a fine product!  With G. Maresca coffee, the sugar always settles in slowly.

Thank you Olga for letting us meet the "family"
Grazie
ciao :-)

Villa di Poppea

We are up early and off to the Villa di Poppea.  This villa was buried by Mt.Vesuvius in 79 AD at the same time that Pompeii was buried.  This villa belonged to Emperor Nero's 2nd wife. This is said to be one of the finest examples of the Roman frescoes and mosaics in a beautiful architectural setting.

The first excavation took place in 700, the 2nd half of the 19th century and again in 1964.

 The city built on top is surrounding this area and keeps the excavations from progressing further.

Tile floors that are still in place after all these years.

The colors are still vivid.

 Kitchen.  Wood fires were built in the lower arches.  Heat from the kitchen was pumped through ducts in the floor and walls of the elaborate private baths.

Walls with great detail of painted columns and birds to give the impression of being in the garden.  What is interesting about the above fresco is the sense of perspective.  Note that in the colonnades. Drawings with this type of perspective did not become common until well into the Renaissance.

This swimming pool is bigger than an Olympic size pool. It had an expanse of 60 meters.  It is still in very good shape.  We can only see some of it as the rest can't be excavated because it is under the "new city".

 Rooms that look into gardens and when they couldn't face a real garden, they would draw garden scenes on the walls.

 Notice the wonderful detail still visible in these frescoes.

On the way home we were serenaded by a trio of locals that jumped on the train then passed the hat.

Ciao :-)