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Hand Painted Ceramics? Let's Go to Deruta!

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Italy is well known for its beautiful hand painted ceramics. The most prominent location to find these beauties is the town of Deruta, in the Umbrian Region. You will see hand painted ceramics in towns throughout Italy…but to see where most are made and thus to have more opportunity to find exactly what you want, Deruta is the place to go.

DERUTA’S LOCATION

This map will give you a general idea of where Deruta is in comparison to the prominent towns of the Tuscan region.

And now, to the town itself, and getting to the heart of Deruta’s ceramics. As you can see in this map, Deruta is a fairly large town and very spread out. But alas, the place that we want to go today is that within the red boundary. And getting there is next up.

Getting to Deruta

As most of us are familiar with using the map features of our cars GPS, phones and pads, here is information that you can enter to get right to the entrance to the heart of the ceramics of Deruta. Deruta Placens is one of the main shops, and is found just as you drive into the Derutan heart, which you will see in a moment.,

LET’S GO INTO THE HEART OF DERUTA

Here is the entrance to the heart of Deruta. Note the sign at the left. It explains about parking. Here is what it says:

Historic Center: Park within the designated spaces. There are parking meters where you can park by the hour between 8am and 2pm.

Entrance to the Heart of Deruta

And what is that large, round, yellow thing to the right? Here is a closeup. I don’t think that you will be able to fit this within your luggage when you return home. But no worry, as having your fragile purchases shipped to your home is no problem.

Now, just drive through the arched entrance and then straight and up until you get to the heart. Then, on your right, you will immediately see the Deruta Placens that we used with our GPS to get here. That is my wife, Ellen, going in to do our first bit of shopping.

Ellen entering Deruta Placens

NOW, TO THE HEART

Here are a couple of photos of the Deruta heart. There are shops on each side for 406 feet, according to the Google Maps measurement device.

LET’S LOOK AT THE ARTISTICWARE

So, from here on, I have many photos to show you of what you can expect to find there. Just click on the first image to get a full-screen view and then use your arrow keys or your mouse to advance through the photos. As you look at the photos, know that as we were in the heart of Deruta, our own hearts were beating with impression and desire.

When images begin to repeat, click on the X at the top right

That’s quite a variety of beautiful hand painted ceramics! Now, it is time to make a purchase.

THE PURCHASE

Ellen has found an artists work that she desires. A sample plate has been placed on the counter and she is taking a photo. Paperwork for shipping back to the U.S. has been filled out. It is highly recommend that you ship your purchases back. If you don’t and breakage happens in travel, you are out. If you ship and something happens, you are covered by insurance and things can be made right again.

Making the purchase of our hand-painted plates to arrive upon our return home

And here is our artisan.

 

AND NOW, BACK HOME WITH OUR PURCHASE

Our purchase of several plates shipped back to our home with no problem. Here is Ellen holding one of our beautiful hand-painted plates.

Ellen’s selection for our dining pleasure

But wait…there is a bonus within our order! On the back of the plates is says, “Hand Painted in Deruta for the Burkett Family”. That was such a nice gesture.

The dedication on the back of each plate

These are now our daily plates, and every time we use them, we relive that day in Deruta…and in Umbria…and in Italy.

That’s it for today. If you are anywhere near Deruta and you have a desire for hand-crafted ceramics, you should very much enjoy your time there. And there are several restaurants right the in the heart of Deruta for you to satisfy you Italian food cravings.

And now, it is time for me to say, may God bless you and yours, and…

Ciao for Now,

Steve

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And Now...Another Wonderful Photographer's Award

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I must say that I was not expecting this one…but I certainly welcome it.

“I have been Awarded THE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR once more!”

You may remember that I was recently awarded, “Photographer of the Year” in the 2024 17TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL COLOR AWARDS for photography. Here is a link to that announcement in case you missed it: A Huge Photo Award

It turns out that the same producers of that International Color Awards, just started a new photography contest that is limited to photos that depict “Americana”. All of the photos submitted must have an “Americana” theme.

So, last month I received the notification that I was awarded “Photographer of the Year” for 2026. And here is the photo that garnered that award.

Last Vestiges in Grenville, New Mexico

That photo was taken in Grenville, New Mexico. I happened to be driving by this small town between Clayton and Raton, when I decided to drive through the town to check it out. That is when I came across an abandoned building with the setting sun behind it. I feel that God put me there just at the right moment to capture this image.

There were other photos that I submitted that were recognized in this contest. And here they are.

2nd Place: ABSTRACT: Lobstermen’s Essentials

2nd Place: CUISINE & FOOD CULTURE: Ristra

3rd Place: HISTORY & HERITAGE: Butch Cassidy’s Childhood Home [yes, it actually is!]

3rd Place: MUSIC & PERFORMING ARTS: New Orleans Street Jazz

2nd Place: NATURE: Hazy Day Maine

3rd Place: ROADSIDE ATTRACTION & ROUTE 66: Glamping [Taken with my drone]

2nd Place: WILDLIFE: Preening

And here are a few photos that did not get recognized…but I thought that they epitomized the AMERICANA categories. So, I give you the losers that I feel epitomizes the Americana category.

That’s it for today folks. I plan to get right back into the Italy, Our Italy vein very soon, as that is certainly a subject that I love dearly. And since I do, I say…

Ciao for Now,

Steve

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A Quick Trip to Iceland

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Italy and Iceland are nothing alike…except that the two words share 3 of the same letters. But, in my last article, one of my readers for many years, who was my roommate in Iceland during a photography expedition with Colby Brown, asked for a link to the video that I produced after that Iceland trip. It is “Steve Junior” who asked, and I provided a link in the “Comments” section to the video.

So, today I give all of you a link to see that Iceland is not all ice at all. It has great beauty, as you will see in the video. Just below is a photo of me standing next to one of the beautiful icebergs of Diamond Beach.

Me on Diamond Beach

Now, a word about “Steve Junior”. Between us two Steves on the trip, he was actually the elder of the two of us, but we had fun referring to him as Steve Junior, and me as Steve Senior. I believe that he is about 10 years older than myself. I have my 79th birthday coming up next week.

So, in just a moment is the link to the video on Iceland that many have watched on YouTube. When you watch, please be sure to have your speakers turned on, as the music adds a lot to the video experience. However, please be aware that the music does not start until just over a minute into the video.

Here are the ‘Chapters” of the video:

  • Lifecycle of the Jokulsarlan Icebergs

  • Traveling the F26 Road Through the Highlands of Iceland

  • An Intervention for Steve Junior

  • An Iceland Sampler

I put the third section in bold, because I need to explain to you who were not there exactly what this is about. Colby arranged to have a very comfortable “bus” as our transportation during the week. It was actually a large four-wheel-drive vehicle. The driver’s name was Siggy (or Ziggy). When we encountered the first hay baling farm where the bales were in the form of large white plastic-wrapped spheres, he suggested that we were looking at a “Marshmallow Farm”, which is exactly what they looked like. There were several around Iceland. Every time we were passing one, Steve Junior would act excited and ask that we stop to photograph the growing marshmallows. This was Steve Junior having fun at being funny, and we really enjoyed his make-believe enthusiasm. But, I decided to add a chapter in the video to honor Steve Junior. That should be enough explanation now for you to understand that chapter, and to understand the very last photo in that chapter’s video.

So, enough said…here is the link to the video, complete with music from one of the very best sci-fi movies ever, “Oblivion”, which starred Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, and Olga Kurylenko.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMHrDLQD7xQ&t=444s

One more thing: We were there at the end of June, which is the summer solstice where we were given daylight for most of a day’s 24 hours. When we photographed the icebergs on Diamon Beach, to avoid having tourists in our photos, we went out about 9pm an took photos until about 4am.

Even though we are in Iceland and not in Italy at the moment, I will still say “Ciao for now”,

Steve Burkett

[And I thank each of you who posted comments in my previous article, where I not only brought you the Cathedral in Siena, but I also revealed to you what is going on in my life health wise. Thank you for all of those very thoughtful comments.]

The Magnificent Cathedral of Siena

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When we last got together on my Italy travel blog, we were spending a wonderful day being toured in Tuscany by Stefano, which you can review HERE.

Now, we are back in Siena and it is time for a bit of beautiful sightseeing. Specifically, we will be visiting the Cathedral of Siena. It is oh, so gorgeous…but I’ll let you decide its beauty.

“If you read to the end of this article, you will find out a bit of what is going on in my life”
— Your Author and Photographer, Steve

An archway to Piazza del Campo

As we leave our hotel to go to the Cathedral (which are also known as Duomos in Italy), we pass under an archway to the famous Piazza del Campo of Siena.

And now we are in the Piazza del Campo.

 

The Piazza del Campo of Siena

It is a very famous piazza. One of the reasons is the famous horse race held right there in the piazza. The race is called the Palio di Siena and it is held twice a year…July 2nd and August 16th. The race, which goes back to the 17th century, is a competition among the different districts of Siena. It is a very intense race, with the winning district celebrating for many days. If you have not seen the movie Solo Mio, I highly recommend that you do so. Among the other attributes of this beautiful movie is the actual horse race.

Ok now…let’s make our way to the Cathedral of Siena. As you can see in the arial view below, it is not very far…it’s just a bit up hill, which is a great place to have a cathedral.

Aerial view of the Cathedral of Siena and the Piazza del Campo

I will now give you a few facts about the Cathedral, and then I will let the photos that I took there speak for themselves. The Cathedral took a good while to complete: its groundbreaking took place in 1196, but it was only completed 1348. Such a large church, with the limited construction amenities of the day takes a long time to complete. The exterior is wonderfully covered with carved stone.

And now, the photos of this magnificent Cathedral of Siena.

The second photo of the series is a closeup view of the lower part of the first photo. The exterior is a magnificence of carved stone.

As always, please click on the first image to get a full screen view, and then make you way through the photos. When photos begin to repeat, click on the “x” at the top right of your screen.

Did you notice the pipe organ? It is absolutely beautiful. Amd that poor lion has been holding up that column for many, many years. And the animals in tile on the floor?! The animal at the very bottom is a unicorn, and his logo in Latin says “I Live Long”…so, maybe they do exist. Maybe Big Foot and Yeti ride a Unicorn!

That’s it for today’s article from Siena, with love. It is a magnificent town in the magnificent Italian region of Tuscany. But there is one more photo from within the Cathedral of Siena. I can only assume that these people are looking at the Baby Jesus. Since He is not in swaddling clothes, perhaps they are back in Nazareth.

My Story

Perhaps it is time to tell you about my life of late. It is not a pretty story, but it is what it is and I take it as God has delivered it to me without my complaint. During the fall of 2025, my voice began to have a bit of a slur. Pursuing the cause, I was diagnosed in January of this year with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The ALS abbreviation stands for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as motor neuron disease (MND). My particular version is known as “Bulbar ALS”, and it is less affecting of my whole body muscles, and has more impact on my throat muscles and tongue…thus the slurred voice. Right now, if we were to talk on the telephone, you would definitely have trouble understanding what I’m saying. The best thing about this Bulbar ALS is that it does not involve dementia of the brain! Yes, that is the best thing about this.

If God was looking for candidates for having ALS, I am the perfect candidate. That is because I do not need any Visiting Angels, because I have a Resident Angel in my wife of 49 years. Yes, with 5 years as a nurse, and with 39 years as a practicing physician, I am under her wonderful care daily. She even retired from practice in March to be able to attend to me. We do not plan to sit at home every day of the rest of my life…we have plans to travel here and there, including Italy in the fall!!! Yes, that’s right. So, stay tuned for more articles about Italy, our Italy.

Are you wondering if there is something you could do for me? If so, there is something you can do for me…and it is so easy if you are prone to prayer. That’s right, prayer is the best thing that you can do for me…praying that my life will continue to be filled with joy (which it is…everyday) and longevity. And, that our God will continue to bless me, my family, and my friends, in so many ways. I will continue to share my love of Italy and photography with you as long as I am able, so your prayers for that are also appreciated.

And if you are praying for me, is there something I can do for you…like prayer for you, or in the realm of photography? I can modify from color to black & white, remove things that you want removed, improve lighting, add artistic effects, switch heads from one body to another, etc. Just contact me at steveburkett1977@gmail.com,

So, as always I say “Ciao for now!”, and “May God Bless You and Yours!”

Steve

The Results Are In - Part 24

OK folks, it is toot once more that toot I let you toot toot know of recognition toot in toot Black & White toot Magazine…this in the toot February 2026 Single Image toot Contest Winners. Sorry, as I toot looked back at toot what I’d typed, I saw way toot many toots of my horn. No more then.

“The category that my People’s Choice Award photo was featured is the “TRAVEL/PEOPLE/PLACES” category”

This February issue #176 includes 6 of my photos, which is a record for me in this premier magazine. As I look at the other winners, I see one person with 4 photos, and a few with 3 photos published. Toot!

 

Here is the cover of this month’s issue.

Once again, a female giving us a dark, dramatic look.

 

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD WINNER

Here is the photo that captured the public voters’ attention. The title is “Mom & Sis at White Sands National Park”. This is my mother (aka Tutu & Maurine) and sister (aka Luanna) at White Sands National Park, New Mexico. I took this photo in 2012. This photo was the People’s Choice Award Winner in the TRAVEL/PEOPLE/PLACES category. As we sat under the shelter, we had lunch. It was very much of a tradition when traveling with my mother that we have a food box in the car for lunch stops at roadside parks…or pretty much any place that we could find shape just off the highway.

Mom and Sis at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, 2012

SINGLE IMAGE AWARD WINNERS

As always, to see the photos in a full-screen way, click on the first photo and then click on the little > at the right of the photos to work your way through the 5 photos.

HOW THESE PHOTOS WERE MADE

In the first photo of the snowy egret carrying a branch to his mate to construct a nest, no Photoshop techniques were used. That is captured exactly as he was flying back to the nest-to-be.

In the Full Moon Through Desert Thorns photo, yes I did use Photoshop there to layer the full moon and stars behind the thorns of a barrel cactus. [by the way, for the caption in the publication, they used the caption from someone else’s submittal].

The Ocotillo photo was a Photoshop composite of ocotillo limbs shot at various times in the Sonoran desert of Arizona.

The Street Jazz Musicians photo? No Photoshop at all.

What do you think about the Drawing Desert Energy photo? Photoshop or no? The correct answer is yes to Photoshop, of course.

DO YOU PREFER COLOR OR BLACK & WHITE?

I would love to have your input in the comments section below regarding your preference for black & white as shown above, versus color, as shown below.

Here is What He Was Doing with the Stick

It was so fascinating to watch these beautiful snowy egrets building their nests in St Augustine, Florida.

The male would fly out and gather a stick and bring it back for his female mate to build a home…time and again.

Here they are below as he arrives at the nest-in-progress to deliver his stick. She accepts and places the stick in just the right place. And, they often display unexpected affection, as seen here.

FINALE

TOOT! TOOT!-TOOT!-TOOT!-TOOT!, TOOT! TOOT!

[To the rythm of shave and a haricut, two bits]

My lips are very tired from tooting, so no more, and sorry to have tooted to you so much this issue.

Each of the photos above causes me to pause a bit to think on God’s gift to us through his creation of plants, animals, and us humans. It is always such a joy for me to be out in the open spaces or city spaces to admire His creative handywork. And, I consider each of you to be a part of His precious handywork.

Although this article is not Italy-related, I will still say…

Ciao, for now!

From you friend, Steve

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