Bottega da Verri

The meeting with Marion was bewildering. Because at the heart of Xavier Verri's entrepreneurial idea there is a splendid love story. It was, in fact, his girlfriend who gave a whole new kind of input to the shop that her companion had inherited. Marion, skilful and able, had been working as a cook since she was 16 in one of the restaurants owned by her family in Switzerland, where they met five years ago. Today, she is 29 and he is 31, and together they manage Bottega Da Verri, a gourmet food and pastry shop that brings authentic Italian flavours to Aix-en-Provence. "From the great love we both had for Tuscany - my parents work in Arezzo - we got the idea of opening an Italian shop where you could find meats and cheeses, hot dishes such as lasagne, eggplant, pasta, and pizza, but also traditional desserts such as torta della nonna and chocolate caprese.”

"You can come to us for a take-away meal or you can put together your own plate to eat in 15 minutes, enjoying a variety of Italian cuisine of the highest quality.” In Bottega Da Verri you can find buffalo mozzarella, parmesan cheese, and scamorza, which are all gourmet foods for French customers.

The warm and bright colours of blue and red dominate with reassuring wood and strong marble alternating around the spaces. "I wasn't looking for something extremely modern which would dominate the design,” Xavier reflects. “I preferred something middle-of-the-road that could evoke Tuscany and, at the same time, be very welcoming and soothing."

Our first space was entrusted to Aba Arredamenti’s aesthetic touch about three years ago. Recently, we have opened a new shop selling fresh pasta which was also designed and furnished by the company from Arezzo. It is a great success, most of all for its very particular setting, 25 square meters large, that includes a workshop and a sales point for both fresh and cooked pasta which is very important for the quality of the product. "In total we'll have 3 shops,” Xavier explains. “We're also expanding our business into the catering sector and then we'll open a kind of workshop. Now there are 10 people working in the shop, but we are hiring new staff specifically to better manage the catering service.”

In order to keep the Italian flavour and atmosphere of his workshop alive, Xavier must always draw from his Italian life and he is happy to return whenever he can, going to visit friends and colleagues scattered between Arezzo, Cortona and Florence. Some of them have also started interesting projects, such as the production of homemade ice cream, with a typical ice cream cart located just outside the shop.