Help me give a (restaurant?) gift to someone in Pietrasanta

December 18, 2007 7:45 PM

Please help me be a gift-giving genius. I think I want to arrange a lovely but not-too-expensive lunch or dinner for my friend in Pietrasanta, Italy, where he is now living. I've never been there, know nothing about the town, and don't speak Italian.

I've thought about contacting a concierge at a hotel there and asking, but I have no way (that I can think of) to tip such a person.

My friend was an excellent and generous host to us for a week-long stay in Florence this past February. This would be a combination thank-you/Christmas gift. I'm hoping to spend no more that ~$100.

Communication with my friend is sporadic; I'd need arrangements to be rather open ended (rather than coordinating a date and time).

Anybody know anything about Pietrasanta? Any clever ideas for accomplishing this?

Other gift ideas are also welcome. I think he's living in a camper near a quarry -- he's a "struggling artist" sculptor -- so he's traveling light, as far as I know.

posted by amtho to travel & transportation (3 comments total)

By "traveling light" I mean that giving him "stuff" might not be such a great idea. Also, shipping is not so easy; I've been told that the postal service is not very dependable.
posted by amtho at 7:50 PM on December 18, 2007

There are a bunch of ways to spend $100 in Pietrasanta. Restaurants are abundant, though the only one I recall is Cafe Michaelangelo, in the main plaza, and it's more of a place to get drinks and people watch.

I had one helluva dinner in a little town not far from Pietrasanta, and I'll ask the guy who took me for the name. The place was on a cliff, basically, in view of the quarry where I'll bet he's camping... close to Seravezza. It's been in operation for centuries and not just a few.

Actually, if you'll email me (in profile), I'll make an introduction and see if he'd be willing to help you out. He spent 17 years there as a sculptor and speaks the language, plus is knowledgable about customs.

I envy your friend, impoverished though he may be. Not many better places to be if you are a stonecarver. All that lovely stone, tools, sculptors, history, atmosphere.
posted by FauxScot at 1:16 AM on December 19, 2007

Patience Gray's book Honey from a Weed is a wonderful foodie book about living an artistic life in Italy (and Spain and Greece). Gray was married to the sculptor Norman Mommens, and her book is full of what it's like to live a simple, rustic life, close to the land where the stone comes from.

It's a cookbook of sorts, but there's a lot more to it - about discovering foodways, about celebrations. It's a distillation of their lives. Worth the read.
posted by sagwalla at 2:06 AM on December 19, 2007