Photo gallery: meet the village artisans keeping traditions alive in Le Marche, Italy
For artisan skill, there’s nowhere in Italy like Le Marche, a central region populated with family businesses that handcraft paper from hemp, weave basket bags for Italy’s biggest fashion houses, and stitch the leather balls used in an ancient sport.
In the village of Treia, craftsman Daniele Rango makes a bracciale ball in his workshop.
Craftsmen Daniele Rango (left) and Nazareno Crescimbeni (right) pose in their workshop with leather bracciale balls.
A cobbled alleyway typical of the village of Treia.
Sunflower fields cover the rolling countryside between Fabriano and Treia.
Palazzo del Podestà, the historic centre of Fabriano.
Museum craftsman Mastro Cartaio making paper in Fabriano’s Paper and Watermark Museum.
Further stages of paper-making in the workshop at Fabriano’s Paper and Watermark Museum.
Freshly made paper in Fabriano’s Paper and Watermark Museum. The drying parchment bears Fabriano’s signature filigrana (watermark): an outline of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.
Master artisan Luigi Mecella holding a bundle of freshly pressed paper in his workshop in the countryside outside Fabriano.
Craftsman Emiliano Scattolini at work binding books by hand in the workshop he shares with Luigi Mecella.
Bookmaker Emiliano Scattolini at work binding pages.
The pressed print covers of handmade books at Master Luigi Mecella's workshop.
The tiled roofs and shuttered windows of typical houses in the town of Mogliano.
Tonino Nardi and his wife Morena weave bags in the workshop beside their house in Mogliano.
Tonino at work making a part of a bag in his studio, Tonino Nardi Workshop, Mogliano.
Weaver Tonino Nardi poses with his family (from left: Morena, his wife; Sara, his daughter; Tonino; Dino, his brother) in the streets on Mogliano.