About me
My passion for ceramic was born during my schoolyears at the Istituto d'Arte of Florence, where I attended the fascinating lessons of Salvatore Cipolla. I graduated in that school in 1980 as "Maestro Ceramista".
At the same school, from 1980 to 1982, I followed the Graphics course of the same institute and got the corresponding qualification. From 1982 to 1985 I worked in the leather production, manufacturing high fashion items.
In 1985 I opened the workshop "Il Tafano" in Tavarnelle val di Pesa and started to experiment with the "colombino" technique.
The story behind the name
The name Il Tafano (The Horsefly) derives from the history of an important family that came from Barberino Val d'Elsa and settled in Florence in the first half of the XI century. The family was originally called "Tafani" and the name of its residence in Florence was "Palazzo Tafani da Barberino". But that name was considered not to be very elegant, so it was changed in "Barberini" and the horseflies on the family crest were replaced by bees.
Inside the town walls of Barberino you can still find "Palazzo dei Barberini", which has above its door a stone shield with three insects (horseflies). Near the town there's a farm that belonged to the Barberini family, whose name is "Tafania". Here was probably born the cardinal Maffeo Barberini (1568-1644), who was elected pope in 1606 with the name of Urbano VIII.
I was born in Barberino Val d'Elsa, whose inhabitants have always been called "tafani". So, when I opened my ceramic workshop just near the famous "Tafania" farm I thaught it was destiny that choose the name, and I called it Il Tafano.
