ItalIan Style

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28
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tuscan treats
Once upon a time, Tuscany was the heart of the
Renaissance. Today Italy’s most famous region draws
upon its past – and updates it.
TEXT and photography By Guy Nowell
100 |
Ys | summer 2014 | 101
This is Turcany,
the birthplace of
the Renaissance,
where you trip
over history every
time you cross
the road. It is also
the the home of
Chianti, salame
Toscana, and
pecorino cheese
W
When you hear Viareggio described as ‘one of the most important
centres of superyacht building in Italy’, you are forgiven for
imagining an industrial town dominated by cranes, dirt, and
the spark of welders’ torches. Not so! Viareggio is a glorious
seaside resort of style and character, boasting miles and miles
of golden sand beaches, some of the finest examples of Liberty
style architecture anywhere, a fabulous promenade known as the
‘Passeggiata a Mare’, and an even more wonderful annual preEaster carnival parade, the ‘Carnival di Viareggio’ that dates all
the way back to 1873.
And this is Tuscany, the birthplace of the Renaissance, where
you trip over history every time you cross the road. Florence
is the capital, and Siena is just around the corner. The image
of the Leaning Tower of Pisa dominates the picture postcards,
and Michaelangelo not only took the pure white marble for his
102 |
‘David’ from the Carrara quarries, but also lived and worked in
Pietrasanta. This is also the home of Chianti, salame Toscana and
pecorino cheese, which is just as important.
High summer produces an influx of sun-starved Dutch and
German tourists, but the shipyards are busy all year round. Down
at the southern end of the town, near the old port area, you’ll see
writ large such celebrated names as Benetti, Perini Navi, and others.
You’ll also find Rossi Navi whose boats are no less large, but – if
there is such a thing – more ‘boutique’ than the vessels coming
out of their competitors’ yards. Shipbuilding has been an item in
Viareggio since the beginning of the 19th century, beginning with
shipwrights building small fishing vessels along the banks of the
Burlamacca canal. Today history, culture, architecture and tourism
live comfortably side by side with the building of superyachts, the
ultimate and most refined expression of the shipbuilder’s art.
PREVIOUS PAGE:
Sunset from Mommio
Castello
OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT:
Benetti sheds at Viareggio;
Margherita and Fiorenzo
Bandecchi; mosaic
workship; marble art; the
Rossi family; Prince Shark
by Rossi Navi with lighting
by Promotech
ABOVE CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT:
the famous Leaning
Tower; Art is everywhere in
Pietrasanta; Botero in the
piazza; Tuscan produce and
hospitality
Ys | summer 2014 | 103
Rossi Navi. Family Matters
One of those ship builders is Rossi Navi, an old company with
a new history. Sr Rossi senior was repairing fishing boats beside
the Burlamacca canal 30 years ago, before moving on to building
small cruisers, helped by his ever-inventive brother, Paride. Today
the company is building 40m and 70m superyachts, the COO is
Federico Rossi who started in the family firm at the tender age
of 13 years, and whose son (15) works in the design department
during the school summer holidays.
“We only launch maybe two yachts a year”, says Rossi Jr. “We
are not a production yard. Everything we build is bespoke, and of
exceptional quality. Our engineering workshop creates everything
that goes into the boat (and Uncle (?) is still in charge). We have
the lathes, CNC routers, cutting and bending machines, polishing
and welding gear. We can design and fabricate everything from
alu-bronze bollards to stainless steel handrails. It’s all about being
able to fulfill inventiveness, ideas, and imagination – if the client
wants it, we can probably make it. It’s also about creating ‘cool’
– novel solutions to standard problems, like revolving transom
doors or a circular glass lift, or the ingenious stern staircase that
just… disappears!”
Apart from an almost obsessive attention to detail, ‘doing it a
little bit differently’ is Rossi Navi’s hallmark. A superyacht owner
doesn’t want a boat that’s just the same as the boat moored next
door. “We offer the owner something special, something unusual –
because we can.” At present, all the creative and engineering skill
is being poured into a new build of a classic motor yacht, using
modern thinking and design to solve problems on a boat with very
traditional lines – like the crane that disappears into the funnel,
and the lifeboat davits that support the top deck shade system.
CLOCKWISE FROM
OPPOSITE:
Rossi Navi, in the
shed; Rossi Navi on
display; ‘boutique
everything’ on a
Rossi Navi yacht;
engineering solutions;
Prince Shark’s
fabulous disappearing
stairway
Ys | summer 2014 | 105
Rossi Navi received Commendations at both the 2014
World Superyacht Awards and the 2014 ShowBoats Design
Awards for m/y Vellmari, but they are not resting on their
laurels. Currently in the shed, two 49m vessels from Rossi’s
‘Prince Shark’ line, and a 38m built to the lines of an early
1900s gentleman’s yacht but packed to the watertight doors
with modern design and technology. Federico Rossi describes
it as “a challenge to capture the perfect balance between
functionality and looks.”
If you thought building superyachts was all about boilerplate,
veneer and cushion covers, think again. “We love our job,” says
Federico, “and we love our product. We are creating art that
works, on a huge scale.” With three boats in build and more on
the order books, Rossi Navi are busy – but never too busy to talk
to and listen to their clients.
Ancient Arts
A casual glance inland from the coast at Viareggio reveals a flat
coastal plan that rises abruptly into the foothills of the Apuan
106 |
Alps. And is that summer snow on the peaks? No it’s the outward
sign of the famous Tuscan marble quarries, the most famous of
which are near and around Carrara. Marble was first quarried here
in Roman times, but in the 1980s the area was declared a national
park, and quarrying of the rock faces had to stop, so the marble
quarries simply went straight into the mountains – after all, they
are marble all the way through – creating halls and chamber and
galleries worthy of the Hall of the Mountain King.
Access to the quarries is by no more than a hairpin goat track,
and it is worth remembering that lorries haul out 35-ton blocks of
the beautiful milk-white stone down the same road. Down on the
plain, and the marble is sliced and diced, shaved and pared down
into more manageably sized pieces. For sure, some of the finest
will find its way onto superyachts being built at Viareggio. The
rest will become stone veneers and cladding, paving stones and
tiles, and even blocks destined for artists’ studios.
Maybe some of it will find a way to an artists’ atelier in
Pietrasanta, the archetypal small Tuscan town whose craftsmen
and artisans have attracted the attention of many great artists.
Michaelangelo lived here – if the Bar Michaelangelo is not enough
evidence, take a look at the blue plaque on the wall. Yes, the great
man lived and worked here. Henry Moore and countless others
have come to Pietrasanta to work with the local stone or have
their sculptures cast in bronze. Fernando Botero is today’s ‘nom
du jour’.
Step away from the main square, and there are numerous
workshops such as Studio Barsanti which houses a marble
sculpture facility, a bronze foundry and a mosaic workshop. It’s a
family business, like so many in Tuscany, and Emanuele Barsanti
is the second generation proprietor of a business that has seen
countless artists pass through his gates. Business is good, but
for how long? “Attracting young people to the artisan’s work
of bronze casting and the creation of mosaics is very difficult.”
Barsanti cast bronze for myriad artists, and have created mosaics
on a more-than-epic scale for private individuals as well as
churches and cathedrals all over the world. “It is work which
requires concentration and patience,” says Barsanti, “and today
the world is fast, and young persons don’t want to do something
slowly.” The Murano glass chips that make up the stock of the
workshop come in thousands of colours; creating mosaics is not
something to be hurried.
Made to Measure
How do you build and fit a bespoke luxury interior into a
superyacht, quickly and efficiently? Time was when your carpenter
disappeared inside, measured the space, came back and cut the
wood, fitted it, came back and trimmed it, fitted it again, and so
on. A time consuming and expensive process. There’s a better
answer here in Tuscany: Yachtline.
The trick is to create a full scale mockup in the factory near
Pisa, built on a floor template that is a laser cut precision copy
of the on-site floor plan of the yacht or house. Then bring in a
workforce of master craftsmen, carpenters and wood carvers, built
the entire interior in demountable units, ship everything off to its
proper location and install.
Fiorenzo Bandecchi, President of Yachtline, recalls that
the recent fit-out of a 55m superyacht consumed just 16,000
opposite,
clockwise
from top:
Entrances to marble
quarries above
Levigliani; Barsanti
Jr and Sr; Fabrizio
Rovai, President of
COSMAVE (Marble
Quarries Business
Assoc), and son
Filippo;
Above:
Bar Michaelangelo
and the piazza,
Pietrasanta
Ys | summer 2014 | 107
Fiorenzo
Bandecchi,
President of
Yachtline, recalls
that the recent
fit-out of a 55m
superyacht
consumed
just 16,000
man hours – a
job that would
have taken
an estimated
48,000 hours
“the old way”.
108 |
man hours – a job that would have taken an estimated 48,000
hours “the old way”. A 4,000 sq m apartment on Manhattan is
going to take only three months to build, ship and fit, top to
toe. Presto!
Yachtline have been building deluxe interiors for apartments,
houses and boats for the last 65 years, so they are not beginners.
The last 30 years has seen increasing concentration on
superyachts, and most recently a ‘co-operation’ with Bennetti and
Perini Navi, both blue riband top line superyacht builders. Now
Bandecchi and partner Enrico Ciacchini are looking at private
jets (“we received this call from Boeing…”) and super-luxe retail
stores (“imagine shopfitting a big store, overnight”).
“And,” Fiorenzo is keen to point out, “this is all done with
Italian style and Italian passion. You can go to Germany or Holland
for engineering, but for real style it must be Italian.” He believes
excellence in the present must be rooted firmly in the past, and is
in the process of creating a Museum and Academy of Carpentry
“in memory of my father, who taught me everything. Computer
controlled milling machines are only tools, and to use tools properly
you must be a craftsman.
To do that we need to teach the young generation to do the job
properly and to understand the materials – and so, the Academy:
that unique blend of old and new, bringing history up to date, on
which Tuscany thrives.
Light Fantastic
Tuscany is home to the avant garde as much as it is to the
traditional. On the outskirts of Viareggio you will find a company
that calls its product ‘integrated lighting’, meaning that the
lighting systems that they design and build are internal and
integral to the structure to be illuminated.
Promotech Italia – and chiefly founder Claudio Giampaoli –
have taken the application of LED lighting units to the ultimate
level. They have created panels of light that are completely
evenly illuminated (“How do we do that? Simple: just work at
it for 10 years…”), tough enough to stand on, powerful enough
to backlight a gossamer veneer of slate (marble is almost to
easy), and so colour-controllable that photographers use them
for product shots. In a residential setting – or, indeed, on
board a superyacht – change an entire wall from sunshine to
candlelight in an instant. The applications are only restricted
by imagination.
“We have tried to create something that truly exploits
the almost limitless potential of LED lighting. Low energy
consumption, long life, low temperature, dimmable. We can
illuminate anything from a saloon to a staircase, or even a
wine cooler.”
This is ‘Tuscany techno’, blending together modern
concepts and ancient materials, creating interior lighting
systems that are exciting and inspiring, and at the same time
supremely practical. Promotech light panels are like having a
tame and controllable skylight built into any given structure,
at sea or on land, by day or by night. And when the client’s
imagination goes beyond what Promotech have perfected
already – well, they just sit down and work out a solution to
the new problem. “We call this ‘hand-crafted technology,’”
says Giampaoli. “It’s a perfect metaphor for Tuscany, fusing
old and new, craftsmanship with technology, and materials
with ideas.”
OPPOSITE,
CLOCKWISE FROM
TOP:
full size interior
mock-up at Yachtline;
designed with a
computer; cut by
a computer; but
still finished by a
craftsman
ABOVE,
CLOCKWISE FROM
TOP LEFT:
Claudio Giampaoli
shows off an infinitely
versatile Promotech
light panel; more
Promotech integrated
panels; light up
your walls; light up
absolutely anything
Ys | summer 2014 | 109