A Visit to Marchetti

It's always interesting to me how much more conscious of space (or the lack thereof) one must be here. Our materials have come from various locations in the area, including a brick factory located near the community pool (Toppetti), the plumbing and electrical supply stores in Ponterio, and our local version of Lowe's/Home Depot: Marchetti.

From the outside; this is a nearly-square building, of which the
bath/flooring section is 2/3 of the space

Marchetti is owned and operated by one family, and is a smallish building divided into two parts. One half is like an all-purpose hardware store, selling hammers and chisels and spray paint and pvc piping and wood and various other items of that sort (including, amazingly, since air conditioning isn't really a thing here, "American tape"...aka duct tape). The front half, on the other hand, specializes in kitchen/bath/flooring. Because they don't keep stock in the store, one has to order pretty much everything. The disadvantage is that some items can take a few days to a week to come in. The advantage, though, is that they can fill their space with samples rather than taking up huge amounts of area just holding the materials that people might want. This creates a "just-in-time" system which actually works quite well. For even more choice, they also keep numerous catalogs from which one can easily order.

Maybe the first floor tiles?

Here are a few peeks at what we see when we go to Marchetti:

Boy, those Hooks sure buy a lot...

A few of their outdoor tiling samples

Walking in, the office is through the door on the right.
There are flooring tiles on sample boards to the left.

Faucet samples, along with a sample card of available finishes

Wood flooring section

Additional faucets and extras

Moving away from the office and towards the stairs, you have
basic faucet supplies and toilet seats

Upstairs, you have your bathroom showroom:

There are racks and racks of nested tile samples

All sorts of mosaic options

The toilet/bidet area, with many more choices in small "bathroom"
displays elsewhere

These are just a few shots to give a taste of this surprisingly complete store! 

Love,

Alexandra