Discovering old trades

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Details

Price	starting from € 188,00
Length	5 days

Contacts

Sapori d'Italia Incoming
Tel. +39.0323.31598
Fax +39.0323.932574
Email: saporiditalia@stresa.it Send message

The wish to discover this land by learning about its traditions and ancient trades will guide us during this tour. Along the shores of the lake and in the Ossola valleys we will discover old trades and ancient skills that have made these places unique for centuries. Santa Maria Maggiore is the town of chimneysweepers, Gignese the town of umbrella makers and Quarna the one of musicians.

Day 1: and arrival at the hotel, welcome cocktail and presentation of the programme, evening meal and overnight stay.

Day 2: today we will visit the Vigezzo Valley, also known as the Valley of Painters because some of Europe's most famous painters lived here. It is also known as the Chimney- sweeper's Valley because most of the inhabitants of S. Maria Maggiore were chimney sweepers. From a very early age children left their town and travelled with their fathers to work. Children chimney-sweepers were in great demand because, being smaller, they moved more easily in the chimneys. Nowadays, to remember this tradition, the Chimney-sweeper's Museum has been created. The ancient instruments of the trade are exhibited here. Every year a World Meeting of Chimney-sweepers is held here, with chimney-sweepers coming from all over the world... the festival last for three days.

Day 3: umbrella makers have nowadays almost completely vanished. In Gignese many inhabitants plied this trade and moved around Italy, surviving by mending umbrellas. Nobody has their umbrellas repaired any more: nowadays a broken umbrella is just  thrown away! To remember this ancient trade some very precious umbrellas and tools of the trade are exhibited in a museum. Our visit will then continue to a garden quite close to Gignese: Alpinia Garden. This is a collection of mountain plants and flowers set in a garden with a splendid view of the Borromean Gulf.

Day 4: the stones quarried in our area have always been used for very different purposes. Black gneiss was used for roofs, grey ‘serizzo’ (another variety of gneiss) and pink granite of Baveno are used for floors and for decorative elements; white marble from Candoglia (la Veneranda Fabbrica) was used to build the Duomo of Milan. To this day the quarry is still property of the Curia. Today we will visit a marble quarry that uses the same vein of the Candoglia quarry; the first marble used on the Duomo is from here. The quarry has recently been opened the public; the tour will take us the heart of the mountain, two hundred metres underground and into an amazing marble “hall”.

Day 5: departure after breakfast

SERVICES:

• 4 nights, half board in an excellent three-star hotel by the shores of the lake;
• entry to the Chimney-sweeper's museum;
• entry to the umbrella Museum + Alpinia Garden;
• 3 guided tours;
• visit to the marble quarry;