When you meet Al Pisano for the first time, you feel his sense of humor right away but then you feel his Italian passion really spark when he starts asking your opinion of his latest Italian plaque creation. Al carves his infamous plaque creations in his private studio in Miami and wife, Kay, makes sure they get reproduced in stone-replicated resin and shipped as if they were just carved and painted by an Old World Roman sculptor.
Artist Al Pisano
Al and I call each other up at all times of the day or night with new ideas and we’ll feature his latest plaque designs as they are created here and also on our Italian Shops page of our website. If requested, Al will sign his pieces for you or your gift recipients, some of which have become Italian classics in “villas” all across America.
He even designed a replica of our Villa Romano Villaggio Italiano which is shown here. They can add your name at the bottom so you can display your own family estate in your kitchen, den, or front entry and can be displayed indoor or outdoors. Measures 22″ by 10 1/2.”
The idea came to me when I tasted my cousin’s homemade red wine in a cellar buried deep in the small village of Tricarico, my grandparents’ hometown, in southern Italy. I was feeling deep, heartfelt pride as I filled up two 5-liter jugs for the trip home and knowing that I was tasting my own grandfather’s wine recipe almost a hundred years later after he immigrated to America. I wanted to memorialize the moment and to capture the stone walls of my cousin’s cellar so I created this stone plaque in Rocco Romano’s honor . . . our family name, our hometown, and the year he came to America. We have a few extra blank stones left if anyone is interested. I have them carved by an Italian stone engraver in San Diego.
And when we designed the belltower of our future Italian village in southern California, we added replicas of these stone plaques to the outside walls. Here’s what they would look like when finished. We’ll call it our “Italian Immigrant Wall” and, hopefully, a hundred years from now, someone will look at these with a glass of red wine in their hand and will appreciate that same Italian pride.
Grazia Caroselli and her husband, Bob, are teaming up with Thomas and me to write and produce four 1-hour episodes of Italian-Americans traveling back to their home villages to discover, for the first time, their ancestral roots and lost relatives. We want to capture their first glimpses of their village and their first contact with their Old World family and traditions. We will stay for a few days to film the ad lib intereaction as well as the special characteristics of their hometown neighborhood. Lots of family/village recipes to taste and share.
We’re looking for Italian-American stories and photos for content and will select 4-6 couples to take back to Italy for the experience. If you know of anyone that fits our quest, please have them contact us at villaroma@aol.com.
Tuscany has been an inspiration for centuries and Florence alone can humble you in an instant at any number of locations in and around its environs. My Italia buddy, Thomas Tamburello, narrates this short clip with some of my favorite images taken back in 2007. The music is by Marco Missinato, our Los Angeles amico.
The question this morning is whether to crash the bocce ball group in Marina Hills Park which means standing around until the yelling stops long enough for someone to measure the latest close proximity of two precisely thrown balls. Before they even stop, someone is screaming for the point. So after six or seven “back and forths,” one group declares itself the winner and the other group mopes away to the sidelines. When any luck, one of them gets to draw the winning card for the next game.
I always tell them that I forget who won or lost by the time I drive down to the first stop light afterwards but some of the guys carry the results home, add it to their salami panini, and then marinate it for Friday’s rematch.
We're building an authentic Italian village in southern California on a 20 acre vineyard with a belltower, teatro, banquet hall, trattoria, wine caves, chapel, 40 B&B rooms, wedding garden, Italian spa, artisan shops, olive grove, Italian garden, and ristorante. Our target opening date is 2010 for our entire village with our belltower/wine tasting room in 2009.
We've assembled designers, artisans, chefs, writers, actors, tradesmen, teachers to evolve our concept for an Italian community (village) both in "brick and mortar" and online at www.villaromano.com
We have gathered lots of creative ideas and concepts, including how to build our village "green." We welcome comments and suggestions.
Thank you (mille grazie) for visiting.
