Beginning my Italian tour
3 June 2026 • Arriving in Milano
After spending May in Barcelona, I left Bob there for five more days and traveled to Milan. I haven’t traveled alone internationally for a few years, so I was a tad anxious at the beginning, but as soon as I got to the airport and went through the usual routines, I relaxed into the experience.
I was to be joining a group of eight mosaic artists from around the world, two world-renowned maestras of mosaic and our tour group leader for 10 days in the far north of Italy. All I knew was that it would be a fair amount of luxury, great scenery, delicious food, and an amazing five day workshop creating an interpretation of a mid-century mosaic mural by the famous Italian artist Gino Severini. The photos and narratives that follow in these posts will describe the where, why and how of it all. It was quite a journey!
Day One • Thursday 4 June
Our group assembled on a street corner across from the Milano Centrale train station and met one another while waiting our our mini van to arrive. We discovered there were three Australians, three Americans, one German and one Belgian. I had never met any of the women before. Our initial meeting boded well for the week. Soon the van arrived with our leader and organizer, Ingrid Gaiotto, Helen Bodycomb and Arianna Gallo, our two artist instructors. Ingrid is an Australian-Italian, who organized this location because the area is where her family is from. Her parents left there for Australia, where Ingrid was born, but she has spent a lot of time in her ancestral city and is very enthusiastic about promoting the area as a beautiful place to bring visitors. She’s partnered with Helen and Arianna before on organizing mosaic and food-related travel. This is the first time both artists will be co-teaching a workshop. I have know both amazing women for many years, which is why I jumped at the opportunity to have this experience. Our first day was filled with touring amazing architecture and art of all kinds, on the way to our destination in Piemonte, the tiny hamlet of Campigila Cervo.
Villa Necchi Campiglio
First stop on the tour was this villa, constructed in the 1930’s by a “nouveau riche” family of industrialists from the outskirts of Milano. They had a cast iron foundry and founded the Necchi sewing machine company, which still produces sewing machines today. They bought a large property in the middle of the city and created a lush garden villa which was nothing like the high rise apartment buildings of the wealthy all around it.
Casa Museo Boschi di Stefano
Next stop was an elegant apartment building also designed by Piero Portaluppi. The couple Antonio Boschi and Marieda Di Stefano were passionate collectors of 20th-century Italian art. After their deaths, a foundation was set up and their home became a museum for their collection. Their furnishings remain amongst the art-filled walls. The rooms are organized in chronological order so we walked through the history of 20th century Italian art.
The group at lunch in a cozy restaurant in Milano. Excellent first meal our our trip!
Alessandria
After lunch we drove to Alessandria, about 1-1/2 hours away from Milano. Here, on the post office building is the focus and inspiration for our mosaic workshop: the 1940-41 mosaic mural by Gino Severini, called “The History of Postal and Telegraph Services”, celebrating the evolution of communication. Severini, an artist of the Futurist movement, also practiced mosaic as a medium, and we today recognize him as the father of modern mosaic. Our leaders Helen and Arianna developed our workshop based on interpreting elements of this mid-century mosaic artwork.
Full view of the mural. Click to see video walking along the length of mural.
After our visit to Alessandria, we got back in the van for our ride to our home for the next eight days. La Bursch Country House in a tiny hamlet near Biella, in the pre-Alps of Piemonte. All about that in the next post!
