Foscolo Lombardo: the art of music

Going along the Montone river valley is a pleasure for the eyes: hills, especially in this period, are light green and the bright light of the dawn and sunset give them a romantic allure. Small boroughs with theirs walls and castles tell about a border area where people was used to defend and fight for their land.

Dovadola is one of this. This tiny spot is very well known, at least at a local level, for the truffles ‘yearly fair, a great event that covers two weekends in October. These are the first signs of Apennines that you meet along the way. The “calanchi”, ancient visible stones that intersects the pinewood covering of the hills and the cultivated fields or the green grass for the typical Romagna cow.

The lute maker

You should stop in all of them, walk slowly, talk to people and enjoy the original honesty of these places, still outside the touristic main stream. And not so far from the center town, at the end of a short lane, you will find an old Bottega, not a usual shop, but a place that is a mix of tradition, passion and art craft.

Foscolo Lombardi works here. His history dates back to the wartime, but he is the last lute maker of a shop, which has almost 200 years of life. His grandfather started to build some musical instrument, especially violins and basses and so did Foscolo’s father.

As soon as you enter the shop, you feel something religious. Pieces of woods, each one of a different length, half done instruments in varying stages of development, models of violins and photos. A lot of photos, memories of his family’s history. There is nothing that may let you think about a serial production. This is the reign of hand made. And not only.

Someone always told us that the wood has its own sound. Well, it’s true. Foscolo takes a long log put it near our ear and then knock. A note comes out, quite clear. This prove that a piece of log can make a wonderful violin or bass but it must sound somehow.

In the shop there were also interesting wood-carving tools and equipment, paint and laquer spray cans, and wood chips lining the floor: a place that tells also the passion that Foscolo puts in every instrument. Carving a bass or a violin s like making an on measure dress. Every musician has it’s own sound, so this must come out when he plays and this means meet the musician and try to understand him as an artist. Foscolo speaks slowly. What is so natural for him, astounds us.

A slow rhythm that makes every action full of a sense of peace and respect of the nature that gives him the raw material that transform wood into the sound of music.

A true experience that you should not miss!

If you want to visit him, you can find it here!

V. Vicolo del Mulino 4 47013 Dovadola Forli-Cesena, Italy