Stories of travel,

masks and jewels

“There is nothing like searching if you want to find something.”

– J.R.R. TOLKIEN

This is how the story of Ornella Tomaccini begins, who in 1954 left Rome in search of something. Something different and unique that could upset her life.

She travels to South America, passing from colorful and boisterous Brazil to the mountains of Peru, to then go to the rhythm of tango in Uruguay.

But her most important stop is Mexico, where she moves to work with her husband Enrico Pozzo.

A new world opens up at her feet: a riot of different landscapes from side to side, bright colors like the joy felt in that period.

With her dreaming eyes, she decides to stay and live there for some time, the years that she still defines as “the most beautiful in life”.

On his return – because, alas, there is always a return – he brings with him the luggage full of memorabilia and a heart full of emotions.

Arriving in Rome, after the enthusiasm of rediscovering the city of her childhood, she finds in herself that desire to find something, to continue looking.

She feels the need for travel again, and you know, sometimes when traveling the best thing is to get lost.

“People don’t take trips— trips take people.”

– John Steinbeck

It’s February, Carnival time and a new journey is about to begin.

The desire to travel is different, something has changed in her, she feels the urge to regain possession of the Italy she had abandoned: her new stage is a surreal Venice.

In the masks, in the roaring joy of the party, she finds something unexpected. She sees in those lines and those colors, something so similar to the Mexico that she left and that she loves so much.

Mexican calacas and Venetian masks are for her the sides of an inseparable coin.

She senses some kind of bond between her two souls, she has a strong intuition and follows her.

This is how a few months later, in the square of the Cathedral of Orvieto, she opens “The masks”.

An excellence of Italian jewelry that is nothing more than Ornella’s declaration of love to Mexico and Italy.

Why is a jewel if not a piece of the past to wear on your finger?