Emporiums, bazaars and paint shops are shops that recall the past, but which stubbornly resist time despite its profound changes.
They are magical places, where you are seduced by the charm of the objects that are sold inside them.
Their roots lie in a tradition that goes back more than a thousand years, as demonstrated by the etymology of the words themselves. The oldest of all is the Emporium, whose term, which dates back to ancient Greek, means a landing place for a maritime traveller. This is because the Mediterranean, the "sea between lands" represented the main commercial bridge for all those peoples who lived on its shores.
The emporium was therefore the fulcrum of these exchanges, around which entire cities were born and developed, and even if in the present the identity of these activities has changed, becoming a shop where products of all kinds are marketed, that matrix remains alive of exchange, of the search for new and unknown goods coming from everywhere.
The history of the Bazaars, "market" in Persian, does not differ much from that of the emporiums, except for its Iranian origin. The bazaars are that maze of small artisan shops, workshops, markets, which intersect in the centers of Middle Eastern cities. Like many other words with an exotic sound, it has been introduced into our language for several centuries, precisely because of the suggestion that these places of commerce.
And even if over time it has lost that refined and original meaning, becoming a common word and a usual place, that charm and wonder remains even in today's or local bazaars. Finally, paint shops are shops, or to be more faithful to regionalisms and the past, "Botteghe", with a pleasant and genuine retro flavour. Their name derives from Mestica, a term common to the Tuscan and Romagna dialects which means "mixture", and which in ancient times indicated the preparation of colors and oils that was spread on the canvas or wood before painting.
The mesticatore or mesticiere, or the shopkeeper, sells in his shop materials for the fine arts, colours, varnishes or enamels, but also products for home care, small tools, mirrors and frames, tableware, loose goods or goods packaged on site.
By entering a paint shop, you rediscover the pleasure of exploring old shelves, finding new and unexpected objects, and rediscovering ancient and forgotten ones. You reflect in the glass bottles, you let yourself be guided by the smell of wax, you are attracted by the unusual beauty that nestles on the shelves.
Like in a flea market or in an old cellar, in a general store, in a bazaar or in a neighborhood hardware store, inside the paint shop you get lost in an apparently unchanged, timeless space. It is an orchestra of trinkets and ornaments, instruments and utensils, each one as unique and special as the story it tells.
It is from this mix of things and stories that Bitossi Emporio was born, an atlas of found, selected or recovered objects, a naturally broken down selection where past and present, functional and decorative objects, tradition and novelty come together without hierarchies. A vintage candle holder, a delicious food product, a hand-woven basket, like on the shelves of a paint shop, dress the Bitossi Home tables with originality and unequal harmony.