We cannot avoid to navigate the 7 seas and the 5 continents. We can
never disconnect from the world around us if we wish to do our job well and,
then, how beautiful it is to travel, know new places and people, dive into
other cultures.
Now the DHG BLOG is born and we have the chance to “bring” you with us. A little reportage
for each journey. Let’s go!
6-11 December 2011 Finland
6 unique and fantastic days spent in part together with Leena, Piia and
Sirpa, big friends and DHG partners. From 2012 they will be, in fact, the DHG
testimonials in Finland and we are going to develop new projects with them...
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| On the left Sirpa, Leena on the right |
They came to meet
us first. It was last May: they came to
meet us at our Company offices with Eva (Basile) and Cristiana (Di Nardo) even
if the weather was terribly hot and damp those days. Maybe just for this reason
–tit for tat – (of course, we are joking!) they invited us to Finland... in
December!
We had never been
to Finland before and we just fell in love with it. You can feel the power of
nature in every corner, people are really hospitable.. and also food is
excellent! Then how about the healthy and marvellous habit of taking a sauna?
All and all, it was
not so cold, even if the snow was not missing, luckily, and believe me, it was
amazing to see Santa Claus’ Country under the snow!
Maybe the only
problem was to get used to having only a few hours of light per day, as when
the sun rises, it’s 10 in the morning and it already sets at 2 pm.
Obviously, it is
impossible to see everything in 6 days, but we were on the move all the time.
We spent some days in Helsinki, the capital, which is like a little treat of
about 600,000 people, overlooking the Gulf of Finland. The first day, the 6th
December, it was National Holiday, so almost all shops and public places were
closed, but the next two days we really had fun. The city is very clean, well
organized and it is easy to wander around. Helsinki is the world capital of
Design for 2012 and it is just ready for the role. We stayed in the Design
District and it was wonderful to go
around the beautiful streets full of shops, cafés and art galleries. Prices
were not so moderate for us, but sometimes just seeing the beautiful scenery
around is enough.
We spent another
three days in the nice city called Jyväskylä where Leena and Piia’s company, Papiina,
is located. Papiina is specialised in the production of clothes made of felt (www.papiina.com). This city
is famous for its universities and
because it is the home town of Alvar Alto, the most famous Finnish architect;
it is about 600 kilometers from Helsinki. Trains run fast through the infinite
countryside and iced lakes and we would have wished to stop at every moment to
take some decent photos of the places unfolding before our eyes.
When we arrived, we
spent the entire day at Papiina and we were able to see how these two energic
women manage their company. It was beautiful to spend some time with them. See
how their product are born, learn what their problems are and dream of new
adventures. Then, they spoiled me so much: it was wonderful to work having a
cup of tea, Christmas sweets and salmon cake in an ambient which I would define
Jamaican-like. Total relax!
Another day we met
Sirpa too and we visited Jämsä, maybe the “capital” of Finnish felt. Sirpa
lives there so we started from there and visited some farms where they work
Finnish wool and sell wool products: Christmas decorations, boots, sippers and
bags of high design. Design and craftsmanship in a fine mix coming from the
same place. It’s fantastic!
Then, in the middle
of nowhere, we found ourselves on a wonderful lake where a little rebuilt house
made of red bricks houses one of the highest level galleries of handicrafts we
have ever seen. It really is worthy of big cities like London or New York. Here
you can find felt but also metal and ceramic handicrafts. Amazing handicrafts that made you want to write a
letter to Santa Claus.
What more? We
should write more pages, but still it would not be enough. We stop here and
give voice to the images. We hope they arrive where our words did not.
