Val di Fiemme Summer
— — a summer in the forest the violins came from.
Not only on a wall.
“A long valley in Trentino, set between the Latemar to the west and the Pale di San Martino to the east. The Paneveggio forest at the upper end holds the red spruces Stradivari chose for his violin tops, the wood the locals call the singing wood, still cut today for luthiers in Cremona and beyond. Summer here is meadows above Predazzo, the Avisio running fast and cold through Cavalese, and lifts that run for walkers instead of skiers. People come for the cross-country races in winter; the summer belongs to the forest, the wildflowers, and the long afternoons along the river.
Val di Fiemme Summer, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Val di Fiemme is a glacier-cut valley of around 30 kilometres in the Italian Dolomites, in the autonomous province of Trento. The Avisio river runs through it, and the main settlements (Cavalese, Predazzo, Tesero, Ziano di Fiemme) sit on a high terrace between 900 and 1,000 metres above sea level. The Latemar group rises to the west, the Lagorai chain to the south, and the Pale di San Martino to the east, all part of the Dolomites World Heritage Site recognised by UNESCO in 2009. The valley has been governed since the 12th century by the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme, one of the oldest surviving communal institutions in Europe.
At the upper end of the valley stands the Paneveggio forest, a high-altitude stand of red spruce (Picea abies) inside the Paneveggio - Pale di San Martino Natural Park, which covers around 197 square kilometres. The wood is known to luthiers as the foresta dei violini, the forest of the violins, because Antonio Stradivari and other Cremonese makers of the 17th and 18th centuries chose their soundboards from these trees. Slow growth at altitude produces unusually narrow, even rings that carry vibration well. The Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme still selects and sells single resonance spruces to luthiers worldwide, including makers in Cremona, Mittenwald, and Mirecourt.
Summer in Val di Fiemme begins in late June, when the high pastures clear of snow and the malga huts above 1,800 metres open for the cheese-making season. The Avisio runs cold and fast through July, fed by the snowmelt from the Latemar and Lagorai. Chairlifts that carry skiers in winter at Alpe Cermis above Cavalese, Pampeago, and Bellamonte run for hikers instead, opening direct access to ridge paths above the treeline. Cycling and trail-running events run through July and August, drawing riders from across the Alps. By early September the larches at altitude begin to turn, ending the summer window.