Emilia-Romagna is known for its elegant medieval cities, sun-soaked Adriatic beaches, and some of the best cuisine in Italy.  Bologna has its pasta and meat sauces, Parma its famed ham and parmigiano cheese, and Modena the world’s finest balsamic vinegar. This rolling, beautiful region is the home of the Italian sports car,  Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Ducati.  The traditional art of the region has a great story.

In this small ancient area of Italy there is an artisan tradition of “ironing” hemp cloth to make it soft and then printing it with traditional motifs.  The ironing machine is called a mangle and it is reminiscent of a large water wheel that a man walks in to turn the gears and cause the stones to press the cloth. The mangle has its origins in Mesopotamia. The machine’s original design required the strength of many men, but during the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci himself calculated the precise measurements and weights that allowed the mangle to be operated by one craftsman alone. In Romagna, the mangle has been used since the Middle Ages for ironing the crude, handmade fabrics of the era. You can see it at work in a short film, “The Mangle of Santarcangelo” which shows you a mangle that has been working since 1633.   The hand-carved and hand-printed designs are steeped in Romagna traditions.