Every trip to Tuscany I keep my eyes out for a random piece of iron for a blank area at my flat. One October, my friend and I made a valiant effort by stopping at several places I had read about…but gees the prices were insane so that little dream stayed dormant for awhile.
Then as luck would have it- as my new friend Joanna and I walked through a car park I shared my dream for a random piece of wrought iron …sometimes sharing leads to big surprises. Who would have thought we were literally steps from the iron worker in town!?Joanna jumps out of the car and asks if he would consider letting go some of the old pieces I had eyed that were leaning in the weeds outside in the car park. He said,” Ahhh these are Vecchio ( old) please just take them”. We tried to pay for the lovely items and he said, please do not insult me. The kindness of strangers…
So the next day I arrived with sweets I had brought from Tennessee ( and some from the local bakery too just in case) and the two brothers smiled and nodded having no idea how happy they had made me! I showed them pictures of where I placed the lovely iron work. I gave them a rum cake made from Tennessee rum Jack Daniels- Stefano said, “I don’t speak English but I know Jack Daniels!” ha. It really is a small world. His brother explained the two small pieces were old gates from a church protecting the Madonna statues, and the larger was a small gate into a garden area. They are handmade and you can not get these anymore so I am so proud to restore them (or maybe not?) and hang them in Casa Carideo. I ended up making the larger one a fireplace adornment, and the other smaller piece I hung in the entrance way. I still want to lightly sand them and paint green but that will have to wait for another trip! What do you think?
