2 July 2018
We drove to Deruta after dropping our house guest off at the airport. It seemed sensible to make something of the trip down here. Deruta is about 40 minutes’ drive from the airport and because we did not come back straight from Deruta either I have no idea how long it would take to drive straight there from Valliano.
Anyway do not believe the guidebook if they tell you that the ceramics museum is open on Mondays and Tuesdays. It is not, so I accept we probably did not see Deruta at its best.
You park outside the city walls of the old town, having followed signs to Centro and then Centro Storico. The Centro Storico is pretty small and (with the exception of one church which was open) Deruta is all about majolica. I was not that keen on the stuff but having visited Deruta I think I would probably revise that opinion, because there are some beautiful objects.
So far as I can tell the old town stretches for a few blocks and most are majolica stores. We followed a man in a red shirt who had been part of the ceremonial precession we saw (the new Italian Minister of the culture was in town apparently). It turned out he owned the kiln museum and majolica shop. It was a lovely shop. He spoken very good English. The only other living thing in the shop was a bobtailed cat (also an antique – according to the owner). We bought some glasses and marvelled at the various different types of majolica over the years because he has a collection of older artefacts many of which are very beautiful. We took a couple of photos of some byzantine style jars.
We then made our way up to main street and got pounced upon by the owner of another majolica shop – who entertainingly was not above letting us know that we had made terrible mistake buying from the kiln museum guy which did mildly irritate me. Definitely a more obvious sale process going on but eventually we did buy some dishes which took our fancy. We paid in cash (of course).
We then had an ok cup of coffee at the Café Dei Consoli which is on the left-hand side passing the tourist information place. We did not stay for lunch because we could not find anywhere open – in fairness it was a Monday.
August 2019
We went back to Deruta today remembering to avoid the Monday closing that had caused us problems last time.
The journey directly from the house to Deruta took no more than an hour. Slightly dodgy bit going round Perugia trying to find the right road but basically it helps to realise that it is the E45 all the way down to Deruta. But rather quicker than I guessed from last time.
We parked at the same place outside the City Walls and there were still spaces at 1045 on an August mid week.
Went to the Ceramics museum, which was good but not brilliant. Some real testaments to bad taste in the products on show but some lovely items too. I thought that the best were some of the work based on images from Renaissance as they are really strikingly rendered. There is a section which has Roman and Greek vases too but sadly that was roped off, so we could not go round it.
Visited the main church next door which definitely worth a visit. Some reasonable fresco remains on the walls, at least one of which looks pretty old to me.
We had lunch at Taverna del Gusto which is just off the main square and which provided a lovely meal sitting in the shaded passageway between the buildings adjoining the passage way. It is on the right hand side as you come into the square. I remember the time before we had struggled to find anywhere to eat so we were pleased to find this.
I also managed to persuade the party to visit again the old furnace Antica Fornace in Via Fabbretti which is pretty well sign posted off the main square. The majolica collection is brilliant as always and various of the party found themselves buying things. Be warned it is a dangerous shop! And sadly the cat is no more…..