I have been planning a 12-day trip to Lucca, Pisa, and Florence, Italy. I now have a nice list of places to visit for textiles.

On the chance that somebody is still checking this group and happens to wonder about Tuscany, send me an email and I can help. Or post here if you want a follow-up after my return, or if you have suggestions for textile places besides Lisio.

Bonnie

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Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

Today I visited the museum of the city of Lucca, where there are several rooms with textiles pertaining to the silk industry here. A loom is warped and somebody has been demonstrating but not today. It is worth a visit.

I am compiling a nice list of weaving-related places to visit in Italy.

Bonnie

sally orgren

Bonnie,

Please continue to post your adventures! (photos?) It would be great to have an abbreviated journal here of your stops for future weaver-travelers to find and follow!

Sally

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

I had a wonderful time in Tuscany and managed to see most of the textile places on my list for Lucca, Pisa and Florence. I have added a few for other parts of Italy because I want to return. We both rubbed the nose of that bronze pig statue in Florence so we are assured of a return trip!

I find Weavo much too slow to use while traveling, especially when the hotel's Internet connection is not fast either. My list is a Word file and I need to spend some time adding notes this week. I can share the file with weavers who email me privately but will not post it here.

Mostly I found old, even ancient textiles in museums. I visited some weavers and a place that restores old textiles (14th through 17th century, mostly), a silk mill that still uses very old looms and sells amazingly lovely fine silk yardage, and a school with custom-weaving on mechanical Jacquard looms. Tuscany was famous for wool cloth by around 1000 AD and the area known for wool spinning, dying and weaving in 1230 (when the bridge over the Arno to that area was built) is the location of the old spinning mill which dates back to the 16th century. Lucca was a center for silk Jacquard cloth for Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries.

The paintings and frescoes depicting people of Florence and Pisa in medieval and renaissance times include detailed images of their clothing. It was really neat to be able to read those images and know how and where the cloth was produced.

Bonnie, still on jet lag but home in Maryland now

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