Mar Piccolo

Ceramics

by piccolina

Ceramics is the great protagonist of the Apulian handicrafts of which Grottaglie, near Taranto, is the capital. Ceramics making of Grottaglie draws its origin from an ancient and consolidated tradition and today seems able to aspire to a large international market. Till the last century, Laterza also producted pregious majolica and today it is trying to recover it again.. Actually,in Grottaglie there are about sixty artisan teachers. Most of the shops are set in the ancient ceramics area,close to Castello Episcopio. In it pieces of forniture,ceramics for table,garden,art and collection objects are produced.These last one,the most precious,are the most appreciated by the estimators.The artistic cribs, the stoups,the dollys connected with the legend about ius primae noctis,are splendid.Among the craft production,wrought iron and artistic glass in Martina Franca(TA) and embroidery in Laterza,are pointed out

WALKING IN THE OLD TOWN

by piccolina

"The old town"

the most of the houses are desert

This is a storic place..to buy fresh fish in the old town

The "postierla"...a tipical kind of street

Città Vecchia, the old town is full of Doccioni and Gocciolatoi(drip),which had the function of the modern roof guttersWe can find them in Largo Pentite, via Domo,in Postierla Immacolata Via Cava, Via Garibaldi,Vico Semonario but the list is more long.Sometimes they are the seventeenth-century gargoyles under the label,for example at the corner of Via Cava with via Vigile.They can be placed on the front or can be decorative.It is interessant to underline that a large collectioon of similar gargoyles is kept in the Museo Archeologico of Taranto,because these objects,made of terracotta,were part of the typical craft production of the Greek city.Doccioni and Gocciolatoi have the same deceptions of monstruous and grotesque animals,in order to dispel the evil eye.However there are many of them representing animals,for exemple the lion or the snout,considered symbols of strengh and courage.

Wedding out of the Duomo di San Cataldo

"Fisherman"

A fisherman working to his fishing net..while he work ..he sing!!

"A desert corner"

"A market in the street"

I would like you can feel the smell of the "percoche" peach..

one of the inhabited street...

Il Mar Piccolo

Il Ponte girevole, across the channel between the Old Town and the New Town