Deruta is a small town in Italy of some 8,000 people. It’s also a town that was founded in the 11th century, making it well over nine hundred years old. Located in central Italy, in the province of Perugia, the town is justly famous for its ceramics — including its Biscotti jars– which are imported all over the world.

Visitors to Deruta will walk through fortifications that date from the 12th century. On the Piazza dei Consoli can be found the Gothic church of San Francesco, built in 1388, and the Palazzetto Municipale (Town Hall), which dates from about 1300.

Visitors to the municipal hall will find a Museum of Ceramics, an art gallery (the Pinacoteca), and an atrium in which houses a variety of archaeological finds, dating from Neolithic times onward.

But what visitors really come for is to see the ceramics… the Biscotti jars, serving platters, jugs, and so on.

Much of the ceramics in Deruta is made as a cottage industry. Artisans create clay plates, bowls and other objects, which they bring to central ovens to be baked. Once their material is baked, the artisans take them back to their workshops to hand paint them with their speciality designs. After decorating, the artisans bring their wares back to the ovens once again to be glazed.

Travellers through Italy can do no better than to pick up some hand-crafted ceramics in Deruta, but if travel plans aren’t in your future, order genuine Biscotti jars, imported from Italy, from Upside Living.