FIVE IS A MAGICAL NUMBER

Festina Lente is my favorite saying. It literally means 'make haste slowly'
which is kind of cryptic if we are not aware of its deeper meaning.
Let's go through this meaning together. Let's dig in. 

My Festina Lente research is getting more and more interesting. 

Not only do I wish to believe that the FIVE putti are the virtues' symbols of Cosimo I de' Medici: carefulness, patience, silence, and wisdom which are the virtues of the soul (slowness) along with strength which is the virtue of action (speed). 

Strength empowers speed while in action. The rest of the virtues provide the slowness that is necessary to take the right steps forward. 

Isn't that an amazing image? 

However, experts say that there is no written literature about this fresco's description the way we see it. Our best endorsement would have been the famous Renaissance scholar Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). Unfortunately, he doesn't mention any of what I am writing in his 'Ragionamenti' (tr. Insights).  

The tortoise symbol is everywhere in Palazzo Vecchio.
Cosimo I de' Medici's motto was Festina Lente. The
tortoise is his motto's symbol. 

Indeed at that time symbols to public messages through frescoes were accompanied by more pieces of information. That's why they were called didactic paintings. 

Therefore the number of putti could be just a fortuity. Nevertheless, the number five is not a fortuity from what we learn by studying the Medici's coat of arms. In particular Cosimo I de' Medici's family coat of arms. 

The Medici coat of arms was composed of orbs from the beginning of the family's history. In Italian, these orbs ('palle' in popular Italian, balls in English) are technically known as 'Bisanti' (metal uncoined disks whose name derives from the Byzantine coins, known as bezants.)

In the beginning, orbs were 11 red+ 1 blue, then 9 red+1 blue, 7 red+1 blue, and finally 5 red+ 1 blue as we know it nowadays. 

It was Cosimo I de' Medici who narrowed down the original 11 red orbs to 5 orbs as last. What seems to be quite a coincidence with Cosimo I's five virtues that were so dear to him. 

The Medici family coat of arms has five red orbs and one blue
orb. The blue orb equals the blue dot, the world.  What are
the five red orbs standing for? 

Unfortunately in this case as well as above there is no scientific confirmation from art historians that what we are writing is true. It's yet an interesting interpretation. I like this story. What if we were the first ones to come up with this discovery? How can we prove that we like this story so much to think of it as a true story?  

Alternatively, we could think of the orbs as the continents. We could take into consideration that the blue dot is the world and think of the Medici coat of arms as a symbol of power to extend all over the world. However, in the Renaissance period, they only admitted the existence of four continents, known as the four corners of the world. The world at that time was ruled by the number four: four seasons, four virtues, four cardinal directions, four elements. But it's prime numbers that are magical. And five is a magical number in particular because five is the number of the fingers that make one hand! 

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SMART MOVE

A toad was sitting on my desk in my house
in Piegaro, Italy 

Three years ago I moved to Piegaro, Italy, a small village perched on a hill on the border between Umbria and Tuscany. The province of Siena is about ten minutes by car. Destiny brought me there. I wanted to breathe fresh air. Feel free. I needed some time to rest, research and meet new people. 

So I asked all my friends who had a home for me to stay in. One of my best friends had a home a little far from Deruta. A home he had never rented to anybody before. It was in Piegaro and at the entrance of town. It was the original village toll house.  

I spent the first days without any electricity. However this was a good reason to go out especially at night and discover what the village had to offer. I knew Piegaro for two things: their glass factory and an American lady who lived there. I had known this from Slow Travel. 

Later on I found out that people in Piegaro were fond of this lady as she had made the difference a few years before. She had remodeled the ancient glass factory behind the town hall. She had started bringing travelers to Piegaro from all over the world.  

The portrait my niece did of me when she visited me in Piegaro for the first time.

The first thing I discovered is that the piegarese were extremely curious about what I was doing there. So I said I was doing something on the internet. At that time this blog is everything I had brought with me from Deruta. I had no idea what I would have been doing there. 

I was by myself in a home in a new place. What could I do? I was really missing my interactions with real people, with the Cama customers, my life in the ceramic workshop: answering the phone, replying to emails, assisting shoppers, getting ready for my sales trips. 

However I did not desist. I started creating something new from scratch... 

Follow my story. The Friends of Cama story is not only about a ceramic workshop's revival. The Friends of Cama came as a package with a life change included. The Friends of Cama experience was about to change my life. 

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A TEN WEEK STARTUP STORY

A StartUp that's thinking outside the BOX

I am from Italy and currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I gave myself ten weeks total to get my startup going. My insight will take you first through my startup story by weeks up to date. That will be helping me a lot to look back to the steps done so far. Then we will head forward to the 10th and last week. Afterwards we will comment together along with the products' launch in the market. We will celebrate online and by throwing a party with the Friends of CAMA, the best clientele in the world. What is my startup about? Personal shopping services for American travelers in Italy. Welcome the ultimate startup story. Welcome the Friends of CAMA!

The First Week I settled down

No records of what I did the first week

The first week I arrived I was hoping to meet a friend of Cama who was in the city. However because of him getting busy with his clients, we did not meet. Whatever we do, we receive back. No matter what. Indeed it was originally my mistake from the time back in Italy. I didn't join this friend of Cama in Italy upon his invitation. And I missed a great opportunity of wishing him and his fiancée my best wishes. They were getting married in Italy by surprising their guests who were traveling with them. I will never forgive me for not going to the appointment that day!

The Second Week was a Surprise

I received the visit of a Cama customer who drove all the way from Arizona

We had been friends for many years but I had never known exactly that my business develpment assistant was about to show up at my house. She was driving from Arizona just to see me. That was incredible. Well, she stayed with me for a week. In that week we wrote down the Friends of Cama startup outlines.

The Third Week was just great!

I started writing down everything I did every day

While waiting for my outlines to be edited, I was feeling I was in the right place and in the right moment. Just a great feeling. I started writing down a to do's list. Receiving feedbacks from my Friends of Cama. Joined an association of entrepreneurs and networkers. Chinese New Year was starting the right way. A couple of horses were sitting on my fireplace. Looking at each other

The Fourth Week I started meeting new friends

Everybody would give me ideas

I was feeling so fortunate to have so many talented people around me. Everything spoke to me. From Italy my coach was also sending me excellent feedback about my page on facebook. For the first time in the five years of preparation we had spent together he said to me: ok, here we go. I started gathering all the information from the past that could be of help, I didn't want to waste any of the work done so far. I was about to get my revolution going. It was a revolution with love. I had wanted to make a change in the way of doing business for many years. From the beginning of my journey back in Italy.

The Fifth Week my brother joined the crew

I was so happy to have my brother back with me!

My brother Andrea has always been my best fan. He is younger and has always believed in my potentialities. He is the one who wanted me to be his beachhead for our family's company in the United States. However at that time we were not strong enough. As a ceramics workshop we depended on retail stores. In order to make a change it is necessary to be free. My quest for freedom was taking action. I was making my brother's vision come true.

The Sixth Week I went out scouting

My original scope of visiting the United States was looking for eligible partners

As a lean startup I wanted to be able to piggyback companies that were already established. So I went out scouting. together with my business development assistant skyping from Arizona. With the awareness of my success to come, I approached business discussions for the first time. But strangers who were not Friends of Cama were drawing me back. I cold not allow other people to do that.Nor take energies away from me. I started figuring out how to get the whip hand.

The Seventh Week I kept 

digging in

I had been productive on the facebook page and on my blog without interruption

I had spent most of my early hours by networking through facebook, twitter and by writing my blog posts. Working on the shopping services and shopping products. writing notes. I kept thinking I wanted to make my dream come true about my new way of doing business in unsetting economic times. This was my mission as a teacher, a caregiver and a shop keeper. This would have been my upgrade to my professional skills. Most of my skills are intangible. That's why I want so much to purveyor products again. I want to give life to my skills so that I feel part of this society again. I am gonna make it!

The 8th Week has just started and everything is heading us towards success

Join me on facebook and enjoy the most beautiful experience in my life!

Thank you for appreciating my startup story and for following me. I really wish to celebrate success and help other people reach their goals as creative startuppers. Because it is never too late and there are no limits to our dreams. It all starts with a wish. That's what I started with: lots of wishes!

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/FriendsOfCama
Twitter profile: www.twitter.com/FriendsOfCama
Blog: www.FriendsOfCama.blogspot.com

TO BE CONTINUED...

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"C" for "Chatting"

Attaccare (un) bottone (literally: to sew a button) is an Italian expression
which means to start up a conversation.  

I have learned most of my language skills by talking to foreigners visiting Italy. I grew up in my family's workshop and that was my international language laboratory in the first place. Additionally as a teenager I started looking for people to chat with outside of Cama. 

Wherever I went I would strike up a conversation with foreigners. How would I do that? By starting a conversation with them. This action in Italian is described by an idiomatic expression that comes from the seamstress world: 'Attaccare bottone (tr. to sew a button)'. 

The expression's closest English translation by using the word button is: to buttonhole. However we should deprive this verb from its negative implications of stopping someone and making him/her listen to us. Forcing someone to converse or even convince them about something. Maybe accost and greet are better choices. 

'Attaccare bottone' is such a sweet and dear expression to me. Its origins come from this image: a seamstress stitching a button to a person who is wearing a garment that needs to have a button attached. You are standing in front of this person. You have to keep the other person's garment still. And it takes a little while to stitch the button. 

To bottonhole comes from embroidery. It is called
bottonhole stitching. It takes way more time than
sewing a button. 

Plus the person is wearing his/her dress. You have to hold on to the garment. This action of keeping the other person still for a while has given this expression the negative connotation of bugging someone in endless conversations. In truth this expression in Italian means that you are making contact with other people by being the first starting a conversation. 

This is the buttonhole that we like! 

Of course learning foreign languages by chatting comes easier if you study grammar and read books at the same time. That's what I have been doing all my life. I have studied foreign languages all along my entire school career. Studying is actually a must in order to learn foreign languages thoroughly. Otherwise you will never button it up! 

This is my second edition  of short  stories entitled "Cake Stands for Cama": stories about my favorites starting with the letter "C". 

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FIVE ITALIAN INTANGIBLE ARTS

Italy is world known for good food. You will never guess what
acknowledgment it has recently received. 

In 2008 Unesco created a dedicated arts program known as List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. 

This list includes all arts that are not translated into products of use. However contributing to the advance of our cultural world heritage as testimonials of our identity: a craft processing method (i.e. Violin traditional craftsmanship in Cremona), a community singing art (Sardinian Pastoral Songs), a unique theater performing art (Sicilian Puppet Theater), and a community popular tradition  (Celebrations of big shoulder-borne processional structures whose files are currently under process). 

These examples are actually four out of the five intangible arts coming from Italy. The fifth art is being shared with other countries belonging to the Mediterranean Sea. These countries are as follows: Greece, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Cyprus, Croatia, and Italy. What do you think this art is? I would have never thought about it. Give it a guess. It's the Mediterranean diet! 

The Mediterranean sea from an old map enhanced its fascination as a cultural cradle.

The violin traditional craftsmanship in Cremona is a Unesco
intangible art. 

I first thought of writing a post about intangible arts when I visited Pietra Ligure (Savona) last year upon a national competition of artistic flower tapestries. 

Then I thought of intangible arts again when looking at the sand art creations by California artist Jim Denevan. Denevan's artwork is described as temporary drawings eventually erased by waves and weather. 

Sand Art by Jim Denevan 

Last but not least Italy's Consul General in San Francisco recently wrote a post about Italian intangible arts in his blog. That was a great reminder and so flattering to write about the same subject. What I did is that I wrote my post first and then double-check with Consol's post. The conclusion is that I wish you to visit the Consul's post about intangible arts because art descriptions are very detailed and in accordance with Unesco's guidelines.  However, what our posts have in common is that both start with the Mediterranean diet! Which art can bring more peace than sitting at a dinner table with family and friends? 

The Sicilian Puppet Theater is known as 'Opera dei Pupi'
and is a famous marionette theater. 

Pastoral songs in Sardinia are part of the Unesco cultural heritage. It is a
polyphonic singing style classical of profane music in Sardinia. 

A famous procession takes place every year in GUBBIO, Italy. It is a shoulder-borne processional structure  (macchina a spalla in Italian) with huge candleholders. Now competing to be part of the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. 

The art of flower tapestries is very vivid in the Liguria region famous for their
extensive flowers growing. 

A detail of the peacock's head. The peacock is the symbol of transformation,
rebirth, and rejuvenation. It has been portrayed in many Renaissance
paintings. 

Flower tapestries started as a tradition in Italy for Easter Religious Celebrations.
Will they be the next  Italian art joining the UNESCO list of intangible arts?

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The Power Of Putti's

Festina Lente is Cosimo de' Medici's motto. The tortoise is its symbol.
 A total of FIVE putti are busy around her. What are they doing? What are they standing for? 

It takes a long time to notice something beautiful that we had always had at hand. This is what's happening to me. I can appreciate valuable things around me based on what happens to me in real life. It's an amazing life experience. 

As an example, I have had one of my favorite fresco's detail from Palazzo Vecchio in Florence under my eyes for quite some time now. However, only recently I have noticed something truly interesting that caught my attention. 

The putto holding the inflated veil 

My insight's subject is the tortoise. There are about one hundred tortoises in Palazzo Vecchio. They are scattered everywhere under different materials and shapes. Cosimo I de' Medici loved them. Tortoises represented his motto: FESTINA LENTE. But this tortoise has something special (image above).

                       

Image description:  The scene is on the move. We see a tortoise heading forward to the right. She is keeping her pace. She cannot speed up any faster. Five busy putti around it. They are all doing something. One putto is holding an inflated veil and is transported by the tortoise. The scene is inscribed in a circle. 

The five putti mean something. They are telling us something. Why five putti? I had no doubt when I eventually counted them in the number of FIVE. But I had never thought about counting them before. So I immediately discovered what they were the figures for. They represent Cosimo I' de Medici's virtues! What's most important is that they are necessarily part of the cryptic motto: Festina Lente (make haste slowly). They explain the oxymoron. They help this important oxymoron make perfect sense! I will tell you why they do as my next step. 

But let me go back for a moment to where I first found this source of information. 

Cosimo I de' Medici studying the plans for the conquest
of Siena, Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), Palazzo Vecchio Florence.

This is what I had originally learned about virtues.  It all started with Cosimo I de' Medici's motto: Festina Lente (make haste slowly).  That's where I started. 

Then this painting came to help me make go a step further. Cosimo I de' Medici is surrounded by other people who are not real people though. They are his qualities at work, Cosimo's virtues. Each figure is depicting a virtue for a total of five: 1. CAREFULNESS 2. PATIENCE 3. SILENCE 4. STRENGTH 5. WISDOM.

We may add that the putti above the scene were probably meant to represent guardian angels as it was in use in the Renaissance in Italy, during which the putto was first revitalized. 

Painting's Detail. The putto had classical origins and was revived during the
Renaissance in Italy. They were believed to influence human lives.

Additionally, something important to remember is that in the Renaissance period virtuosity was considered as the quality of doing this well. It didn't depend on the accomplishments' level. It was not a matter of accomplishing impossible endeavors. Anything could be done "ad arte" (artfully). That was one secret to success in one's goals. In detail, such a quality was divided into five speciality virtues. 

This said, let's call the chubby putti over again and translate them into the virtues they are representing. I am listing them alphabetically as above: 

1. CAREFULNESS

2. PATIENCE 

3. SILENCE 

4. STRENGTH 

5. WISDOM  

I have highlighted STRENGTH because the five virtues are divided into two families. Strength is a family by itself. it stands alone. It is the quality of the ACTION. It guarantees SPEED (HASTE). 

The putto carried by the tortoise stands for STRENGTH, the virtue of action.
It generates SPEED (haste). Speed is represented by the inflated veil. 

The rest of the qualities (care, patience, silence, wisdom) are the virtues of the mind and are related to SLOWNESS. 

The balance of HASTE (action) and SLOWNESS (mind) is the secret of success according to Cosimo I de' Medici: Festina Lente, make haste slowly. Isn't it a little better now? Does it make a little more sense to you than it does to me? There would be so much more to write about. I have the material to keep writing forever. But first I wanted to stick to my original wish to write to actual scholars to double-check if they ever noticed this detail in the above fresco. Will they get back to me? Let's give it a try. Let's see what happens. We publish this post in the meantime. Thank you for taking the time to read my post. 

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