CIVITELLA DEL LAGO – OVO PINTO (PAINTED EGG) MUSEUM : ART AND TRADITION

by Benedetta Tintillini

Civitella del Lago is a charming medieval town perfectly preserved. Walking inside the castle walls, between narrow streets and elegant Renaissance palaces, where car access is prevented by the morphology of the place, the atmosphere is timeless .
The good location, on top of a hill, gives visitors breathtaking views over the Tiber River and Corbara Lake, and the eye can range, on clear days, up to the mountains of Lazio and Tuscany .
But not only the charm of the intact old town and the beautiful scenery are the gems that adorn Civitella : inside houses a unique museum : the Ovo Pinto Museum.
It all started with the intention not to squander the wealth of the old traditions. Eggs have always had a value, both symbolic and economic, in the countryside. They were used to make purchases, through bartering , until less than a hundred years ago, and they were, of course, and still are, a symbol of life and rebirth. During the Easter period women used to color them with herbs and natural substances, to bring them to the blessing of Good Friday, and to be eaten for the traditional Easter breakfast.

TODI UNDERGROUND : THE “Fabbrica della Piana”

by Benedetta Tintillini

Among olive groves and pine trees, inside the Parco della Piana, a pleasant green area close to the town of Todi, lies the charming Fontana dei Bottini. Delicious in its simplicity and in its functions, with less than 150 years of life, the fountain tells us of a simple peasant life that seems so far away in time. Built in 1872 , it is called “dei Bottini” because it is supplied by small galleries by barrel vaults called Bottini. It consists of three basins, with different functions: one for the watering of animals and two for cloths washing, one for soaping and one for rinsing.

This fountain was, and is, fed by water drained from the galleries to be visited .

The nineteenth-century galleries are fully accessible even to the people less accustomed to this kind of experience, passable on foot and in extreme safety .

The bricks used for the masonry works were made with the material of the excavations, brought outside, worked in a furnace built ​​for this purpose, and reintroduced into the form of bricks.

DERUTA: AN AMAZING JOURNEY THROUGH THE HISTORY OF THE CERAMICS OF DERUTA

Donatella Tintillini e Francesco Baiano

by Benedetta Tintillini

I come into the shop – workshop – museum “Antica Fornace” of Deruta, immediately greeted by the founder, Mr. Francesco Baiano. He accompanies me, with courtesy and enthusiasm, on a visit through his collection of ceramics, an astounding collection of pottery and ceramic production in Deruta from 1400 to the present.

A journey through the objects. There are apothecary jars, some of which are very curious. In addition to scrolls bearing the inscriptions of the contents, there are also illustrations of the use of the medication, a collection of 200 dishes, each one different from the other, upon which different artists have expressed their genius and their mastery and their signature mark.