Browsing the grocery shelves at Pergolia Heavenly Italian, a boutique located at Lilla Askerön, Tjörn, along the Swedish west coast.
The boutique specialises in importing hand crafted Italian products, from accessories to food.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019
It’s a spring/summer thing to do. To drive along the Swedish west coast. Sometimes we head north, sometimes we head south. Once, we headed south and kept going way past Germany to land in Rome, Italy. We walked around some, had an ice-cream at Vacanze Romane at Piazza Navona, and made an about turn back to Sweden again. This time, we thought to head towards Tjörn and Orust, twin islands that contain some of Bohuslän’s most beautiful summer sailing and bathing spots that’s only about an hour’s drive north of Gothenburg city. The intention was to scout for small local grocers and antique shops along the way.
Our serendipitous find of the day was a boutique located at Lilla Askerön, Tjörn, called Pergolia Heavenly Italian. The size of the shop was about that of a small barnyard. We pulled into its driveway to the welcoming tenor of an Italian opera playing on a surround sound system.
Curious, I was absolutely delighted to find that the boutique carried a wide range of products, from hand crafted marble tiles, leather accessories, ceramic items perfect for an Easter table setting, to a wide variety of Italian food products.
We soon had the opportunity to meet with the owner of the barnyard boutique filled with all exquisite Italian artisan products. Pergolia is a family run business, the idea of which sprung from their frequent visits to Italy, of getting to know each region through the years, and their love of Italian produce. The boutique has been running since 2011 thereabouts, and today was the first day’s opening for the spring/summer season of 2019.
We took the opportunity to acquire some favourite items at Pergolia, such as preserved olives, olive oil, pasta and various flavours of biscotti before heading back to our own corner of the southern archipelago of Gothenburg. With the lingering soft aftertaste of a cup of fresh brewed Arabica coffee at Pergolia, pure sunshine and azure skies above as company to our day’s adventures, we thought this day was, perfect. And indeed, heavenly.
Hand crafted bars of soap.
Wild oregano in tiny bottles.
Easter table setting.
Lovely.
From Venice, with love.
