Bolts and Bottles

Jim and Sharon and I took an excursion yesterday to Montefalco to visit the Tessitura Pardi, a local(ish) textile mill. I had visited a few years ago and had really wanted to return ever since!

Augusta Pardi greeted us at the door; an elegant lady in her (I surmise) 70s, she was fascinated by our family and the story of our coming to Todi. She then told us that she had lived in Toronto for two years several years ago, had taught English in a liceo scientifico in Rome, and had now been working at the mill for many years.

The showroom

The textiles are just so beautiful, you can't imagine. They have linen and cotton blends, pure linen, and pure cotton. Although they have standard pieces they make for their storefronts (one of which is in the Piazza here in Todi), they make a lot of custom pieces, including tablecloths with borders and hemstitching, bed covers, and so on. They also sell the fabric by the meter, on bolts or as precut lengths.

Pattern cards run above

The showroom has all the current designs, but there's the possibility of ordering patterns they offered years ago (assuming they can dig out the old pattern cards).

After swooning over the fabrics for a while, Augusta took us into the mill itself. It was a truly remarkable experience to see the patterns we had just fondled as finished pieces developing before our eyes. The way it works is first they have to set up the warp strings. From my experience with a (very basic) rigid heddle loom, that is seriously difficult and time consuming; if the tension isn't perfect on one little length of string, then there's hell to pay. She told me that their setups take between 800 and thousands of strings. Oh.my.gosh.

Once they have them sort of strung, they put them on the reels. These are massive metal spools with an inner core a foot in diameter, and about three or six feet long, depending. Not something to be moved with the flick of a finger.

I loved the "dust sheets" made of the finest weave!

And the looms! Wow. They are operated with the sort of shuttle-and-bobbin action that you'd expect if you've ever woven at all, even on the limited scale of a cardboard and acrylic yarn setup. However, these looms are jacquard looms that are controlled by punch cards. These cards tell the loom which threads to operate at any given time to create the pattern. Remarkable.

Sharon and Augusta looking at some of the pattern cards

They can make fabric over 3 meters wide!

Winding the bobbins

Finished bobbins

A runner in process

New bobbins-in-waiting

Shuttle and bobbin

The last time I went, the "senior technician" was ill, so the mills weren't running. It turns out, the reason is that the "senior technician" could equally be called the "only technician." He has to change out the bobbin thread manually every time a bobbin is changed. That is, the bobbin loads into the shuttle automatically, but he has to bring the end of the thread back to the selvage edge of the fabric, then bring the shuttle to the correct side, join the threads, and get it going again. This is done every 8 inches or so for a tablecloth. He has to babysit every single loom that is operating.

Gianluca

They also press oil

At the end of our visit, Augusta reminded me of the family winery as well. Since I had had every intention of going back to Montefalco proper (the mill is actually just outside Bastardo, 15 minutes away), a trip to the winery sounded like a good plan.

Oak aging barrels

Squishing machine...no more peasants!

We were met by Gianluca Pardi, Augusta's nephew. I'm getting older, because he looked like the most adorable young man...and he's 32! In any case, he showed us the bottling area, the fermentation barrels, and the steel tanks for further (or initial?) fermentation, along with a squishing machine that does not involve peasants' standing up to their hips in grapes and trampling them with bare feet. We were unanimous that a wine tasting sounded like an excellent plan.

Steel fermentation tanks

The bottling area

The vineyard, directly behind the factory

They have other vineyards throughout the area, as well

The Pardi winery produces passito, a particular kind of after-dinner drink similar to a port, I suppose. It's a sweetish red wine. I happen to be rather fond of passito, particularly that from another Montefalco vineyard. The Pardi passito was rather delicious, so we quickly decided that a side-by-side taste test with the Ruggeri passito would be required.

City Hall

Having loaded the car with the wine, it was time for a bite to eat. We went to the Alchemist in Montefalco centro, which I have to say is one of the most inspired restaurants in which I have ever had the privilege of dining. It is truly outstanding. To the point that I nearly licked the bowl after I'd finished my soup. I'm still talking about my soup a day and a half later. I ordered a second bowl. an I tell you about my soup? Better yet, go to Montefalco and tell the folks at the Alchemist that I sent you!

This car is only a little smaller than mine!

The views continued to be superb; this time, we had mountains with snow as the backdrop to our flaming vineyards!

Love,

Alexandra