Club Area
And now, the craftsmen‘s old guard, all coming from the Castello experience. Luigi (Gigi to his friends) Radice‘s great moustache is now completely white, but his spirit is untainted. Lively, witty and still young (he is only fifty-seven years old), he continues, with his two sons (Marzio, thirty-two, and Gianluca, twenty-nine), to create beautiful, oddly-shaped pipes in the old Castello tradition which surprised the world many years ago. He certainly acts as the celebrity he is, but his skill in creating new models is extraordinary. With his limited production, he too feels the lure of the American market, but an eye to the changes in the Italian market, which now demands smaller pipes, could lead him to deserved success. Roberto Ascorti, the heir of Peppino, was quick to notice this shift and readily adapted to the Italian market, but without losing the important position he had attained in America. Closely observing the preferences of pipe smokers and always open to new ideas, he is one of the top pipe makers of the new generation who have learnt to "ride the tiger".
(to be continued...)
Next articles: Italian Pipe Production Panorama - part V
