Handicraft

Even if the local industries are at the cutting edge of technology, especially in the automotive sector (to give just one name: Ferrari), the craftspeople of Modena have not lost their touch and still produce fine handicrafts following traditional methods, sometimes painstakingly slow, and always using top-quality materials. In and around Modena there are about 400 traditional workshops; among them, lute-maker’s shops making violins and other musical instruments, or cooper’s shops producing the casks and kegs where balsamic vinegar is aged – precision work, as each kind of wood and each cask size lends a different aroma to the vinegar.

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Another leading local craft is jewellery, and unique and precious products can be seen in the windows of the several goldsmith’s shops in the old town centre. Catering to the up-market clientele, Modena is the right place to find restorers of old paintings, books, woodwork, linen, leather and marble objects. Not to mention frame-makers, book binders, upholsterers, potters, carpenters, photographers and menders of woven straw seats. That the people of Modena love beautiful antiques and collectables is clear from the number and quality of antique fairs held here every year.

After all, Modena has a thousand year tradition of pottery and ceramics, as you will notice from the splendour of local monuments. The local textile and clothing industries, too, have pre-industrial roots.