Category: Materials and Craft

I was standing in a damp courtyard near Ravenna last October, watching a junior contractor suggest a high-pressure chemical wash for a crumbling limestone plinth. I almost lost my patience. He saw a dirty surface that needed scrubbing; I saw…

I was in a crumbling palazzo near Ravenna last autumn, kneeling on a cold floor, when the smell hit me—that thick, heavy scent of earth and decay that tells you a building is suffocating. I wasn’t looking at the peeling…

I was standing on a scaffolding in a narrow alleyway in Palermo last Tuesday, watching a junior conservator reach for a chemical cleaner to scrub away what he called “dirt” from a travertine lintel. I had to stop him before…

I remember standing on a scaffolding in a crumbling palazzo near Palermo, squinting at a patch of wall that everyone else called “faded.” To the untrained eye, it was just a dying shade of yellow, but as I brushed away…

I remember standing on a scaffold in a crumbling Palazzo near Palermo, scraping at a layer of “historical” terracotta that felt more like plastic than earth. The contractor insisted it was a premium reproduction, but the way it flaked—brittle, lifeless,…

I was kneeling on a cold floor in a crumbling palazzo near Ravenna last autumn, my flashlight tracing the uneven edges of a floor that most people would simply call “old.” To a tourist, it’s just a speckled surface, but…

I was standing in a damp cellar in Ravenna last autumn, watching a contractor try to explain why a modern, synthetic resin sealant was “superior” to traditional methods. It was a lie, of course—a costly, plastic-wrapped band-aid that ignores the…

I remember standing in a damp basement in Ravenna last autumn, my flashlight catching the edge of a crumbling slab, when a contractor tried to convince me that a modern, high-strength epoxy pour was the only way to “fix” the…

I was surveying a sixteenth-century palazzo in Palermo last autumn when I found myself staring, not at the frescoed ceiling, but at a single, rusted iron strap hinge. Most people walk through these halls and see only the grand scale…

Last Tuesday, I found myself in a crumbling palazzo near Ravenna, tracing the grain of a sixteenth-century chestnut portal with my thumb. Most people walk past these entrances, seeing only a barrier or a decorative flourish, but they miss the…