[ Apr.2018 ] Scanno, the town in Abruzzo in the middle of Italy, is small but they have high quality handicrafts.
It is especially famous for the pendant called Presentosa.
We
also saw some of them being sold in Sulmona before coming to Scanno, but here is where they are made originally.
Our guide, Guido, took us to one of the shops in the town.
The Presentosa is a star-shaped pendant and within the star there are intricate patterns and, in the centre, usually there is a heart or two.
Traditionally, a man will give a Presentosa to a woman whom he wants to marry, so it is similar to an engagement ring.
I do not know if everybody is still sticking to this custom, though.
Apparently, Presentosas have been around in Abruzzo since the early 19th century.
They are mainly made of gold, but low carat ones such as 8 or 12 carat are available to keep the cost low.
In the past, because the labour costs were low, the elaborate filigree technique was used to make it gorgeous.
The name of the shop we went to was Orafi Rotolo.
The woman there told us, “One time people from Osaka in Japan came to this shop and they invited us for a fair held in Japan, so we went there”.
They are truly Osaka merchants, aren’t they?
They came all the way to this small town in the mountains to find something special.
She said “We went to Kyoto, too, but the most impressive thing for me was the Japanese people. They were so polite”.
Well, I am already married, but just for a souvenir I bought a Presentosa made of silver, which was designed by the great
-grandfather of the owner of this shop all those years ago.
She gave us a catalogue of an exhibition held a couple of years ago and according to that, the person who named this pendant the Presentosa was Gabriele D’Annunzio who was born in Pescara in Abruzzo.
Scanno is also famous for its unique costumes.
Also, the lace which is used for 
the costumes is well known, too.
The lace is called Tombolo.
Apparently, it appears in some documents from the 16th century.
At the shop we went to, they make original gold and silver jewellery using the lace-making technique.
They knit the lace with thin metal threads and anchor it with a particular system.
They say that this system is patented.
The works of them were all so gorgeous.
After
leaving this shop, we just walked around the town, choosing the bigger streets.
There were so many slopes and staircases that once you get into one of those alleys you would surely get lost.
We came back to the main square, which had been empty an hour before, and found that many men were hanging around.
It was probably because it had reached the time for the Passeggiata (daily walk).
When we left the town, I asked Guido to stop the car at the point of the good view.
Scanno is a really picturesque town.
