Though lots of ceramics shops line Via di Città, they're mainly only of souvenir quality. The work of Ceramiche Artistiche Santa Caterina, with showrooms at Via di Città 51, 74, and 76 (0577-283-098) and a workshop outside town at Via P.A. Mattioli 12 (0577-45-006), is not. Maestro Marcello Neri trained at Siena's art school and in the ceramics workshops of Montelupo Fiorentino, Tuscany's foremost ceramics center, before taking over this studio in 1961, aided by his talented wife, Franca Franci, and now their adult son, Fabio, also an art school grad. Look especially for their wares painted in "Sienese style" using only black, white, and terra di Siena reddish brown (what we call burnt sienna) with designs inspired by the oldest pavement panels in the Duomo.



Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Florence, Tuscany & Umbria, 6th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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