Here visitors can trace the history of Viterbo, through its historical figures, the world of Tarot cards and medieval esotericism. Chiulli combines  the traditional Viterbo ceramic style, the Zaffera, with personal research, driven by a symbology that she believes holds the world together. In this veritable intellectual salon, where positive energies and ever new knowledge can be absorbed in a fruitful interchange of stimuli, pilgrims travelling along the Via Francigena can leave an eternal sign of their passage by imprinting their names on ceramic footprints.

The ‘queen’ of Daniela Lai’s workshop, under the wide stone vaults, is the ‘Zaffera’, a technique dating back to the 15th century that the craftswoman has fully reproduced. The noble, blue-coloured relief technique is characterised by ornamental motifs that include geometric floral elements, animals and anthropomorphic figures, bearing witness to the fantastic and magical world born of medieval culture.

Lai also likes to use peperino, a local magmatic stone, which she carves and fires with thick crystals, before glazing and painting it.

A graduate of the Liceo Artistico, her first experience in clay modelling  came after learning the techniques of painting on paper and canvas. Today, her artisan ceramics workshop bears the Tuscia Viterbese mark, awarded by the Chamber of Commerce.

She produces terracotta and majolica objects inspired by the traditions and sights of Viterbo, with bas-reliefs and decorations depicting the most characteristic corners of the city. The firings are carried out with a fusion of glazes and colours, a guarantee of durability.

A ceramic sculptor, specialising in decoration, modelling, painting and teaching, she opened Lab33 in 2020, but she has been studying, practising, loving and making ceramics since the age of six. Born in Rome, she graduated in Cultural Heritage Studies in Viterbo. In 2005, she opened her first workshop in Bomarzo, where she carried out her research in the field of the ancient engobbio technique. She then worked as a ceramist in the Marche and Lazio regions before opening Lab33, a place of continuous experimentation. Her motto is ‘Life is like ceramics, you can shape it with your hands’.

This art studio mainly produces terracottas, sculptures and high-reliefs. Each piece is unique, inspired by nature and an ideal harmony between concepts too often seen as dichotomous: man and woman, finite and infinite, visible and not, real and imaginary. The terracottas, like the drawings and papier-mâché works produced in the workshop, tell of paper boats pushed by the wind through the clouds, of mermaids diving into starry abysses, of secrets whispered by little birds, of women rooted like trees, moved like waves, and of soft embraces.

Parallel to painting, he began working with ceramics in 1998. It is his conviction that with ceramics he realises the idea of not only being inside the material but of working within a concept that unites the four natural elements: water, air, fire and earth, to give shape to a sculpture that is created from the missing part. By removing matter, he creates a space and the void that remains modifies the structure. In his recent ‘Sculpted Paintings’, the solidity of sculpture is combined with the liquidity of painting, without interruptions or compositional fractures.

Mariella Pasqualetti’s art workshop specialises in the creation of handmade ceramics. It is a riot of colours and shapes in which her craftsmanship is manifested in the techniques used: Zaffera, enamel and openwork. The Zaffera pieces remind visitors of the medieval ceramic art of Viterbo. The enamels give life to lively creations. Openwork, with its decorated carvings, adds a touch of elegance thanks to the play of light and shadow. The workshop fuses art and tradition, offering an authentic experience through unique works.

He dedicated himself to art from the age of 10, when he first made a terracotta sculpture. His first participation in a national exhibition dates back to 1959, which was followed by a rather large number of exhibitions, including group, solo and extemporary exhibitions. His style of doves and fish in majolica is unmistakable. He is considered the inventor of the laminosculpture technique (1969). Still very active, he also organises tribute events for other artists in his art studio.

Sandra Constantini was born in Cortina. She started by capturing emotions through photography. When her sight problems became more serious, she devoted herself to other creative expressions. In 2015, in Viterbo, where she had been living for a short time, she encountered the world of ceramics and immediately fell in love. Clay gives her the opportunity to express her emotions: imagination, the feeling of the moment and reality influence the creation of her objects, shaping the material. Her thoughts, through her hands, become a work of art.