Arriving late in Milan after a full day of flying and being able to walk from the baggage claim through two doors and arrive at your hotel is a real luxury. No, I’m not in the Centro, nowhere near the action and have to travel each day by train a half hour plus to and fro but my room is clean and modern and after a long day of meeting people and walking the exhibitions it’s nice to have solitude. I’m an SPG man staying at the Sheraton. Whether in Rome, Paris, San Francisco or Milan there is a hotel if not in the airport, nearby.

I move heavy and large pots and other weighty things everyday, I don’t want to lug a giant suitcase all over Europe, too. I don’t need to travel fashionably; I’ve learned to launder in my room. Another advantage of staying at the airport is the other travelers are not there for a convention and all of the ancillary activities that many go for but working stiffs just like me.

Sitting in the bar with a dozen or so guys, watching Barcelona play Madrid, drinking beer and eating pizza and pasta doesn’t get much better. Everyone is here for work. A virtual global dining experience: beer, football, BO and camaraderie. An oil and gas guy from Norway, a

Frenchman from Nice here buying vales for pipeline work. A couple of Spaniards, another American; we’re all here to work.

Speaking of work, that’s me with Brent with Marcello from Terrecotte San Rocco. The buzz around San Rocco is exciting and there is a new color too: Ash. A light off-white, with a more grayish finish that the designers should really go for. More big pots. I love their scale. Come see them in person at our exhibit with Terrecotte San Rocco at Milan Design Week.

What is it about Italian terra cotta? Living in Southern California, we have all seen plenty of Mexican terra cotta, or should I say Mexican CLAY products (since they really aren’t terra cotta). It looks great in the California sunshine, but the clay seems to melt or disintegrate immediately with the constant spray of water from the Rainbird sprinklers working overtime throughout the summer, and winter can be even more destructive.

But not even all Italian terra cotta is created equal. Much of the pottery arriving in the United States from Italian factories is machine-made from mediocre clay found throughout the many regions of the country, but the terra cotta pottery at Eye of the Day is made from Galestro clay, found only in the Sienna Grossetto area of Italy, near and around Florence.

Most terra cotta (whether Italian,  Mexican, Greek, or French) requires a sealant to be applied at least on the interior of each pot to be planted in order to protect the integrity of the material. Terrecotte San Rocco products do not need to be sealed, the quality of the clay will hold up to extremes in temperature as well as constant contact with water.  Terra cotta from San Rocco is long-lasting and frost-proof, guaranteed to -15 degrees; the mineral content found in the clay, when combined with high firing temperatures, insures products of the finest quality and highest durability.  And it is beautiful.  Just say no to poor quality terra cotta, say yes to terra cotta for the centuries.

Over the last few years we have focused on survival and have been importing only products that have become our staples: Italian terracotta, French Anduze pottery and hand-thrown Greek terracotta pots.   Pre-Recession, Eye of the Day traveled throughout the world and brought back some amazing things for our customers.  These one-of-a-kind items coupled with our large inventory of antique oil jars from Italy, Greece, Spain and France have helped see us through slow times.  We often hear that our customers are amazed with our large inventory and what a pleasure it is to be able to find items for their projects.

Many of our special finds have been sold so now it is time to begin exploring the shops and fairs throughout Europe looking for old jars, pieces of stone, architectural iron and funk that just seems to work in a garden.  I look forward to keeping you updated with my wanderings and great finds over the next few weeks, and hope that you may find something to tickle your fancy that you just can’t live without.

Many who know about my wanderings comment that I am lucky to travel around the world and that you wish it were you.   I sometimes wish it were you too and that I could just stay home, read, give Suzi a wish list for each meal and try to burn through a cord or two of oak in our fireplace.  But reality is different, and I find myself with an emptiness in my stomach, feeling homesick before I ever leave.

The ambivalence of arriving in Rome with a cold and my luggage still somewhere at Heathrow keeps me from going to my favorite dive in the ghetto for baby artichokes fried in olive oil.  Instead, I sleep for eight hours and have a marginally decent pizza in the hotel bar (how bad can a pizza be in Rome?).

Finally I catch the last train to Chiusi and meet up with Marcello, owner of Terrecotte San Rocco.  We drive to his home in the hills of Siena where his wife and mother, Nona, have a pot of pesto al Genovese ready and tonight a platter full of prosciutto and a variety of salumi.  It could definitely be worse.  After dinner Nona brings out a small bottle of deep amber liquid, a Christmas gift from an old friend.  There are no labels or foil and it looks to be hand-corked.  My mouth begins to water.  I hope it is a local Vin Santo.  The pruny, sherry-like liquid makes me almost forget the three dozen oysters and magnum of champagne we had with our daughter in Brooklyn on Christmas morning.  Almost.

New Years Eve day we are off to a nearby town for a big antique fair.  It is sparsely attended which gives me a little breathing room to adjust to my antiquing personality.  Walking up and down the steep cobblestone streets of the ancient Tuscan hill town is hard work and makes me hungry.  There is not time to sit down to the wonderful food in a local restaurant, but I find a nice salumeria and a sandwich of excellent prosciutto, pecorino and to my friend’s surprise, a few thin slices of lardo.  A glass of local vino rosso in a plastic cup and I’m back pounding the cobbles.  I find many interesting, but highly priced items, and then find a dealer who wants to bargain…

Below are some photos of some beautiful antiques that I found during my trip to the antique fair.  More to come!

On New Year’s Day I wake up late but I’m glad that the house is quiet.  It allows me to organize my week ahead at the factory.  My partner, Marcello, is the most progressive manufacturer in Italy.  In the afternoon he shows me a new factory he just started with a partner to produce quality terracotta for large garden centers.  While older, traditional terracotta manufacturers are going out of business, Marcello is buying their factories and their molds and working to develop new items.  Our association with this man and his business is becoming to be the backbone of Eye of the Day.

Next week:

Bologna and a little spaghetti.  After that I’m off to France to pick up a special order for a new landscape architecture firm wanting pots from Anduze that we don’t have in stock.  It will be an experiment renting a truck in Italy, driving to France for the pots and take them back to Italy to put on the container.  We are about to find out if this will be less expensive, faster and more productive than shipping by truck from France to Italy or shipping by pallet from Marseille.

First there was Black Friday, then Cyber Monday.  Now, there’s the 2nd annual Small Business Saturday, the day people support small businesses like Eye of the Day!  Pledge to Shop Small on Saturday, November 26th.

Shop Small and Get $25 Back

American Express wants to help you make a difference.  Receive a one-time $25 statement credit when you register an eligible American Express card and use that card for a purchase of $25 or more at a small business on November 26th.

To register your card for the $25 statement credit go here:

Congratulations to Bruce Bieri, Jay Graham, Jennifer Wait, and John Savallo for winning the $250 gift certificates Eye of the Day gave away at the recent ASLA Expo in San Diego!

• Bruce is a landscape architect out of Portland, OR
• Jay is a landscape architect out of Annapolis, MD ()
• Jennifer is a landscape architect in San Diego, CA
• John is with Terra Firma Landscape Co. in San Diego ()