La Ramera of Francesco Gerbasi is a wide, one-story structure whose ordinariness, from the outside, belies the treasure trove that it contains. Upon crossing the threshold there is no mistaking what this place is all about—a workshop, store, and museum honoring Agnone’s centuries-old history of copper production.

Even on a cloudy day, the room vibrates with slivers of light that bounce from one copper surface to the next. Shelves, tables, and cabinets are filled to the brim with copper objects large and small, functional and decorative. Deep, lidded pots conjure visions of the various pastas I’ll prepare with my new lineup of copperware, while daintier items, like the tin-lined olive oil dispensers, are the stuff of a seventeenth-century still life.