By Elizabeth Salthouse

Hidden away in a tiny little workshop at the bottom of a walled garden sits the last artisan battiloro in Europe. Beating out a rhythmic golden heartbeat, his hand-held hammer pummels a pack of gold nuggets into gossamer-thin gold leaf using a technique passed down from the 1700s.

And whilst other goldbeaters have long since turned to machines to do the backbreaking beating fifty-something Marino Menegazzo continues his lone drumming in the house where master artist Titian once lived. If an apprentice isn't found soon, this unique craft will die out; this is what we'll be losing.

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Fonte: L'italo-Americano