Steve Chambers in Verona, Italy: Graduation from "Sustainable Design in Stone"
In the four days of classroom work and touring various facilities, we both realize that we learn more than we ever imagined about the world stone industry. Another added benefit is than we become very close to our fellow professionals and lecturers and later miss them as we stay on to tour the Veneto region of Italy. The MARMOMACC show is overwhelming in its size, breadth, and beauty—again, it must be something about that Italian/Etruscan sense of design. It is not possible for us to see in its entirety, but we give it our best shot in the final day there. At last, we graduate, receive certification for the coursework, and celebrate by going to Pizza School at Pizzeria de Massimo in Illasi, Verona, Italy. Maestro Massimo Cicco, a designated “World Champion of Innovative Pizza,” teaches our class. A liberal amount of vino rosso instills an exaggerated sense of self-confidence in our ability to cook and perform. But, we are humbled when we see the inventive pizzas he presents to us after our cooking lessons. The party closes with the representatives of the nine participating countries performing songs of their homelands.
Steve Chambers in Verona, Italy: Day Six of "Sustainable Design in Stone"
Nature is the art of God. Dante Alighieri
We spend six hours today in classes on the newest developments in stone engineering, restoration, and ‘green’ building. A quick tour of Marmomacc/VeronaFiere whets our appetites for how the Italians can design a show of this proportion. The Etruscan sense of beauty, order, proportion, scale, color, and relationship with nature is still in their DNA. It’s now time to board our bus for the sojourn to Sega di Cavaion, Italy, where the Antolini stone galleries and factory are located. As the bus turns into the gates, we are astonished at the breadth and beauty of the collection and the magnitude of the processing equipment. Stone is shipped in blocks to this plant from Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America to be cut, finished, and shaped. The variety of natural stone, granite, and marble in colors and finishes mesmerizes. We are split in small groups and our tours are conducted by the owners. As we move through the galleries, each one is more impressive than the previous. We’ve been to most of the stone showrooms in Dallas, but this is beyond anything we can imagine. Besides the natural stone ranging from creams, brilliant reds, blues, greens, purples, and yellows, we see manufactured slabs inlaid with opals, lapis, amethyst, chrysocolla, and many other precious stones and metals, including gold and silver.
The processing equipment with its signature Italian detailing looks as though architects had designed and placed it. The order of the plant has the appearance of a Roman landscape. In addition, we are impressed to discover that there is little or no waste at the facility-the small slabs are cut into tiles; chips and dust are used in making ‘manufactured’ stone.
Immediately after the tour, we see rooms designed by architects and interior designers where the stone has been applied to floors, furniture, pools, walls surfaces, and light fixtures in full-scale settings. The evening ends in the Stone Garden with a sumptuous buffet, fine wines, and the engaging company of the Antolini family. We feel as though we are guests in their home. From the level of the chatter on the bus as we return to Verona, Steve and I agree that the group’s appreciation for the possibilities for designing with stone has been immensely expanded by the experiences of the entire day.
Steve Chambers in Verona, Italy: Day Five of "Sustainable Design in Stone"
This is our first day at MARMOMACC, the global exposition of architecture and design in stone, where all of our classroom work is conducted. The program is intense and highly stimulating in spite of our serious jet lag and enchanting host parties that entertained us, long into every evening.
The Alighieri vineyard, in collaboration with Masi, produces all main Valpolicella wines, especially an excellent Amarone that, after a two years aging in French oak barrels, spends other four months in cherry wood barrels. According to some theories the name Valpolicella might come from the latin words "valle poli cellae", valley of many cellars, demonstrating the ancient wine making tradition of the area.
Not surprisingly, Verona, with the important role it had in Roman age, has a very old tradition in vine growing and wine making. In a letter of the 5th Century, Cassiodorus, minister of Theodoric the Great, the barbaric king of the Osthrogots who made his kingdom in Italy and Verona one of its capital, recommended to the barbaric king of the Osthrogots that he try the sweet wine produced in the territory around Verona. In prizing the excellence of the wine he also explained how the wine, both in a white and red version, was made with grapes left to dry until winter before being squeezed. After more than 1600 years, in Valpolicella and Soave similar wines are still made by drying grapes for four months after harvest. 
Steve Chambers in Verona, Italy: Day Four of "Sustainable Design in Stone"
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“Designing with Natural Stone 2010” classes begin with a Gala Dinner at the Castel San Pietro, an 1177 AD castle, once used as a barracks by French soldiers, is perched atop a steep hill above the Adige River. Verona has so many historic buildings, from Roman to modern times--the entire city is designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. We begin with vino bianco and a variety of fruit, cheeses, and fish-based hors d’oeuvres followed by a short Italian language lesson and introductions where all guests are tutored in the art of meeting one another in Italian. Fortification by vino assists our pronunciation and recall immensely! By the time it is our turn, I think I am introduced as Steve’s wife and Marketing Director, but am not able to confirm this as my memory is now handicapped by copious quantities of Valpolicella. Primo piatti is risotto; secondo is steak and vegetables al dente. Grappa tasting on the balcony closes our gloriously clear, cool evening under a full moon in Verona.
Morning arrives early for the first full day of classes at a Botticino quarry in Brescia, Italy. The day is poetically and justly called in our agenda, “From Earth to the Sky.” A tour of the quarry astonishes the architects as two hydraulic shovels heroically force a sheer wall of water-fractured stone from the edge of the cliffs into a cleared valley below. Gastone, our able bus driver, then transfers us to the gang saw facility where the 4-ton+ blocks are sawn vertically into slabs. Water sprays usher debris and heat away from the diamond blades of the immense saws. The Ghirardi manufacturing family provides us with more Valpolicella, salumi, pane, formaggio, and dolce fortifying us for the processing plant visit where we see the limestone textured and polished. Many sedimentary and metamorphic stone varieties arrive to the Ghirardi factory from Europe, Asia, and South America to be polished and cut-to-size before shipping to their final destinations at construction sites all over the world. Our seminar on “The World of Natural Stone: Geology, Sourcing, Selection, and Working with Suppliers” ends our day of classes. An amazing transfer to the winery originally founded by the Dante Alighieri family is about to begin. The beautiful wines and the process of how they are made is detailed in our next posting!
