Due to cataracts, Signor Vittorio – age eighty-two – doesn’t have a needle in his hands to embroider these days. When I met him recently near the Assisi souvenir kiosk of his daughter, Maria Cristiana, he proudly showed me some of his treasured linen textiles decorated with the punto Assisi (the Assisi stitch) which he learned as a child from his mamma Letizia and aunt, Rina.
“I was eight years old when I started and I quickly fell in love with this handwork.” Like many an assisana, his mother and aunt stitched away between tourist-client stops at their souvenir kiosk, which had opened in 1952 and was then located near the 11th-century Benedictine abbey church of San Pietro. 
Head up to the altar of that Romanesque church and you’ll see a Vittorio textile of the Assisi stitch gracing the altar:
Vittorio has gifted each of the last three Popes during their Assisi visits with liturgical linens. His liturgical linens have also been given as gifts to many of the Assisi churches. Vittorio worked in the Assisi hotels as maitre until his retirement but enjoyed embroidery in his free moments. Si, a few other men, too, produced Assisi-stitch embroidery creations, though by and large, young girls in Assisi learned this craft from mothers and grandmothers.
The Assisi stitch created a sense of community, children playing in the piazzas as their mothers and grandmothers embroidered, chatted and watched the children. For the young women, much of their embroidered works were for the forming of a trousseau. For married women, the textiles were for their homes or for sale in a family shop, at a family kiosk or made on commissions for wealthy clients. The Assisi stitch permitted them to work and create, contributing to the family income while also caring for home and children.
The women shared each other’s designs, too. Signor Vittorio created designs but also stitched traditional patterns used by many – and sitting near the family kiosk (now cared for by daughter Maria Cristiana), he was proud to show me one of the designs and its pattern:
As Vittorio spread out his green Assisi-stitch tablecloth, Maria Cristiana looked on with evident pride – and then also showed me a piece done years ago – “we have no idea by whom” – another lovely Assisi cross-stitch striscia (runner), design of the sea horses (a traditional pattern) in blue:
In the family kiosk, Maria Cristiana has a few prized punto Assisi pieces tucked away but not many visitors seek this prized artisan work nowadays.
It’s more likely they’ll take home the Assisi stitch on maiolica plate…
or teapot….
….or on a Assisi-stich sachet filled with local lavender:
Before I left that day, Vittorio a wanted to show me his bag of sewing accoutrements which he always carries with him:
As I left the kiosk, Signor Vittorio was heading home to put away his prized textiles: mementos of a grande passione.
Read about the link of the Assisi stitch to Renaissance artistic masterpiece
Read here about the Collegio del Cambio – and the grottesche
Read about another fine artisan of Assisi, the creator of medieval instruments
See the photos of this artisan at work by Assisi photographer, Andrea Cova
Read about a fine artisan of Assisi, specializing in wood-carving
Click here to read about – and see! – the artisanal books and paper in Assisi
How fabulous to see this – thank you for sharing it online! I am a needleworker, and also a medieval re-enactor who is visiting Gubbio (for the second time) this May. We’re stopping off en-route from Rome to Gubbio in Assisi, and I’m hoping to do some filming for a vlog I have about cross stitch and the like, and am researching more about Assisi as I feel it gets very little attention these days (and deserves more). I will read a lot more about it through you and if you have further information you can impart (the Academia no longer seems to keep their website up to date?) I would be much obliged!