Last minute work trip to Italy

[ILDRHNTR]

I received a call from my boss on a Wednesday, “are you available to make a trip to the corporate office for some training exercises?”. Me: “sure,when?”. Boss: “Monday morning”. Me: “Uh, sure!”. So, I frantically packed my bags and prepared the family for being gone for three weeks. I had ZERO time to plan anything out.

So, I was sitting here halfway through my first week and realized I had no ideas on what to do with my weekends, beyond the obvious tourist traps of course. I started to do some internet surfing, more like AH surfing. I soon ran across a few articles about Italy by @Throwback and reached out for some suggestions. He immediately suggested I contact Leone@ItalianSafari.

I reached out to Leone and he was extremely helpful. Even though there really was nothing near me to hunt this time of year in the far northern reaches of the country, Leone went above and beyond for a complete stranger, knowing there really was nothing in it for him (at least for now, as I do plan to pay him back during a fall visit to experience a true chamois hunt in the Alps). After hearing that I was interested in fine guns (looking, not buying, yet), he offered to hook me up with his good friend, Fabio Piotti of Piotti Firearms. Of course I jumped on the offer, as I had never visited an individual gun maker before.

I contacted Fabio on WhatsApp (the universal messenging service, except for the USA of course). Within minutes he responded and we had a time set up for 2:00pm on Sat so I could tour his shop.

In just a few hours time I had my first weekend all planned out, all thanks to the people who make AH great. I couldn’t wait for the weekend. No, I wasn’t going on some extravagant hunt. But at least I was not sitting around twiddling my thumbs.

Saturday morning arrived and I left the quaint village of Borgo Chiese where I was staying. I drove over, through, and around some of the most stunning mountains I’ve ever seen until I reached the town of Gardone Val Trompia. If that name sounds familiar, it is. It is also the hometown of Beretta. Unfortunately, the Beretta factory is closed on the weekends (as was Piotti). Fortunately, the town is also home to at least a couple of firearm museums. I only had time to visit one but I do recommend it as it was very informative and filled with a lot of historical firearms and local firearm history (I found out later that a lot of the pictures and some memorabilia in the museum actually came from the Piotti shop).

I will stop here for the night and leave you with a few pics of the area as well as the museum.

 

[ILDRHNTR]

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Italy is God’s gift to the rest of the world. Such good hearted people, such delicious food and most importantly… such excellent firearms.

My beloved shotgun is a 12 gauge 3” Magnum Beretta Model 626E which I purchased brand new in the winter of 1989. I wouldn’t trade it for even the most expensive James Purdey & Sons shotgun.

If you enjoy great steaks and have a pocket of time, please do pay a visit to Ristorante La Cascina Dei Gelsi. It’s my favorite place to eat at Gardone Val Trompia. The La Fiorentina Di Scottona is absolutely divine. Basically a gigantic dry aged beef porterhouse steak grilled to a perfect rare over a live coal fire.

 

[Phil Giordano]

Italy is God’s gift to the rest of the world. Such good hearted people, such delicious food and most importantly… such excellent firearms.

My beloved shotgun is a 12 gauge 3” Magnum Beretta Model 626E which I purchased brand new in the winter of 1989. I wouldn’t trade it for even the most expensive James Purdey & Sons shotgun.
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If you enjoy great steaks and have a pocket of time, please do pay a visit to Ristorante La Cascina Dei Gelsi. It’s my favorite place to eat at Gardone Val Trompia. The La Fiorentina Di Scottona is absolutely divine. Basically a gigantic dry aged beef porterhouse steak grilled to a perfect rare over a live coal fire.

Thank you for the nice words on my beloved Italy! Our Country is very nice indeed and offer great opportunies of many kind. Hope you visit Rome one day - if you do, it would be a pleasure to meet and have a good lunch.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Thank you for the nice words on my beloved Italy! Our Country is very nice indeed and offer great opportunies of many kind. Hope you visit Rome one day - if you do, it would be a pleasure to meet and have a good lunch.

Grazie, amico mio. Ho visitato Roma 9 volte fino ad ora. Platea Pizzeria è il mio ristorante preferito lì. Quando ci incontreremo, mi piacerebbe assolutamente offrire a te e al tuo bellissimo pranzo di famiglia lì.

 

[Phil Giordano]

Grazie, amico mio. Ho visitato Roma 9 volte fino ad ora. Platea Pizzeria è il mio ristorante preferito lì. Quando ci incontreremo, mi piacerebbe assolutamente offrire a te e al tuo bellissimo pranzo di famiglia lì.

Ti ringrazio moltissimo, sarà un grande piacere passare un po di tempo insieme! E complimenti per il tuo Italiano!

 

[Throwback]

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Glad you enjoyed it and that Leone could assist. Cheers

 

[ILDRHNTR]

Italy is God’s gift to the rest of the world. Such good hearted people, such delicious food and most importantly… such excellent firearms.

My beloved shotgun is a 12 gauge 3” Magnum Beretta Model 626E which I purchased brand new in the winter of 1989. I wouldn’t trade it for even the most expensive James Purdey & Sons shotgun.
View attachment 663402

If you enjoy great steaks and have a pocket of time, please do pay a visit to Ristorante La Cascina Dei Gelsi. It’s my favorite place to eat at Gardone Val Trompia. The La Fiorentina Di Scottona is absolutely divine. Basically a gigantic dry aged beef porterhouse steak grilled to a perfect rare over a live coal fire.

That is a beautiful Beretta sir!!

 

[ILDRHNTR]

After leaving the museum, I grabbed a nice pizza for lunch. It’s hard to explain how much better the Italians can make their breads, pastas, and sauces. Oh, and desserts!
After lunch, I drove to the address of the Piotti shop, where I met a beautiful young lady walking down the street. I questioned where I was at and she explained to me that, yes, I was at the correct house and invited me to follow her. She unlocked the gate and door where I then followed her inside. It was there I met another beautiful young lady and her daughter. I was introduced to the child as a speaker of English. She piped up and we had a nice little conversation in English which simply lit her eyes up. By now, I was beginning to wonder what was going on. I soon found out as yet a third young lady came by and introduced herself as the English translating daughter of Mr. Piotti. She called for her father as she explained that the Piotti shop has been a part of the family living quarters for generations.
Mr. Piotti arrived soon and graciously opened his shop up for me. I was told that I was free to take pictures. And as much as I would like to say I didn’t take any out of respect for his privacy, I must admit that I was simply too overwhelmed and forgot to get my camera out until the very end where I finally came to my senses.
Having a machinist and woodworking background myself, I still struggled with comprehending the time, effort, and love that they put into each and every one of their masterpieces.
Watching one of his young craftsmen making a set of barrels for a future SxS 28ga simply left me in awe. I watched as he hand lapped the inside of each barrel an unreal amount of times with a bore reamer (not positive on my terminology here) coated with olive oil and various sizes of quartz grit until it was just right. Once the barrels were finished, they would be bonded in one of two ways. The low cost method of using a silver alloy is used upon request. For a more traditional bonding of the barrels, a pine rosin solder is used. Once bonded together, they would adjust the barrels to hit just right at a specified distance based on each individuals sighting and shooting preferences.

For the action, they would rough machine every single component, file and finish to size, and then mate all the pieces together like a fine watch.
I was surprised to learn that all of the checkering and engraving was done by others. Those artists demand their own places of business and the lead times there can be quite long as well. However, once completed and returned to the Piotti shop, each gun is cleaned and finished off with a traditional oil rub.
Prior to wrapping up the tour, I was shown the “vault”. The place where final pieces are stored until they are delivered. All I can say here is that there were several guns sitting there ready to ship to customers back here in the states. And if any one of them belong to anyone here on AH (likely the .500 Nitros), I please ask you to share some pics once you receive them.
The Piotti shop currently turns out 16-20 firearms a year. They have a decent staff of several employees. Their focus is O/U and SxS shotguns and large bore rifles. However, they are preparing to enter into the bolt action rifle arena with a focus on the Mauser K98 action. I anxiously await to see how well constructed and accurate they are.
To wrap up, Italy is full of interesting and historical places to visit. I highly recommend stepping outside of the typical tourist traps and exploring the more rural areas. As well, I can only imagine partaking in a true Italian hunt……

 

[WAB]

Having done a hunt in Umbria last September, I am certain you would not be disappointed.

Piotti is possibly the best of the Italian gunmakers. I’m surprised you got out of there without ordering one!

 

[Bandera]

Went to the Beretta museum, Fausti, Pedersoli and Uberti in 2008.
Fantastic to tours.
Nearly ordered a Fausti shotgun on a return visit in 2018.
Brescia has one of the best restaurants there, Vasco de Gama.
If you have a chance in Rome go to a local restaurant Dino & Tony’s. Big bench table seating. Very noisy and fun. They are the masters of herding cats.