— Web Design · Lovable · Framer Motion · IT / EN
Bottega MarcoAurelio
Gallery, Not a Store
A goldsmith workshop hidden in Rome's historic center. By appointment only. One artisan. Every piece built from scratch around the stone — never the other way around.
↑ The homepage. Dark, gold, no product above the fold. The name first. Everything else follows.
Hired to
Build a website for a Roman goldsmith — simple, multilingual, findable.
Ended up
Defined brand tone and vocabulary, architected a 7-section homepage with tab-switched collections and per-piece storytelling, built the Baratto concept, and implemented URL-native IT/EN routing.
7
Product families — each with its own story, poem, or manifesto.
2
Languages — IT / EN. URL-native routing, no library.
1
Contact method. WhatsApp only. No email. No calendar. No chatbot.
Marco is a goldsmith on Via dei Cappellari — a street in Rome's Centro Storico that has housed artisans for centuries. He works alone, access is by appointment only, and every piece is unique — designed from scratch around the stone, never the other way around.
He had zero digital presence. Tourists found him by wandering. The brief: make the workshop findable without making it feel commercial.
↑ 'La Bottega' section — goldsmith hands at the bench. No staging, no product photography.
↑ Contact section — WhatsApp, orari, mappa, Instagram. Four cards, zero friction. Form pre-fills a WA message.
Hero
Video background, name, no product. Sets the mood.
La Bottega
Who Marco is. Hands, bench, material. Not a bio — a declaration.
Le Opere
Tab switcher: Anelli · Pezzi Unici · Fedi · Pendenti · Bracciali.
Testimonianza
One quote. "Un artista vero." Single signal of credibility.
Il Baratto
The differentiator. Bring broken silver, leave with something new.
FAQ
5 questions. All about access and process. No price FAQ.
Contatti
WhatsApp + hours + map. Form pre-fills a WhatsApp message.
↳ Why not a simpler single-page scroll?
The sequence is the product. Every section earns its place. The contact section should feel like an arrival — not an interruption. A visitor who reaches it already understands what they're asking for.
"Le Opere" uses a tab switcher — five categories (Anelli, Pezzi Unici, Fedi, Pendenti, Bracciali) that swap in with Framer Motion AnimatePresence. Each tab reveals a grid of collection cards.
Cards with multiple images embed an Embla Carousel with dot navigation. Single-image cards render a plain image — no carousel overhead. Each card links to a deep category page with its own layout, copy, and storytelling.
↑ The 'Le Opere' section — tabs switch categories, cards carry per-piece carousels.
↑ The jewelry page — 7 categories (Fedi, Anelli, Pendenti…), each with its own deep layout and storytelling.
Every major piece has a name — often Latin: INITIVM, NAVTILVS, MVTARA NEBVLA — plus a manifesto text and in some cases a poem written by Marco himself. This is not a jewelry shop. It's a gallery.
KINTSUGI
Five-layer production process documented step by step. A manufacturing log, not a product description.
MAREE & LEGIONE
Each has a poem by Marco — freeform meditations with copyright lines. The work is signed.
SANGUE
References Arrakis (Dune) and blood-red stone under two suns. Field notes, not copy.
Sbilanciamento di Bianco
400 words on white light and asymmetry. "Six sides. Eight facets. Off-axis. By necessity."
↳ Why not standard product cards with price and material?
Standard cards would have positioned the pieces as inventory. Marco's pieces have names like a painter names paintings. They needed frames, not price tags.
Marco accepts broken silver: mismatched earrings, bent cutlery, snapped chains. He weighs it. He transforms it. No chain store does this. It's a service rooted in centuries of Roman goldsmithing tradition.
You don't buy something new. You bring something that already belongs to you and give it a new life.
"Portaci il tuo argento, così com'è. Anche rotto."
"Cambiagli la forma. Dagli un nuovo significato."
↑ Il Baratto. Three steps: you bring silver → we weigh it → we transform it.
↳ Why not a standard 'services' page?
A services list would have commoditized the work. The Baratto is not a service — it's a philosophy. Objects have memory. A goldsmith can honor that.
Friction as positioning
No prices visible without reading the piece's story. No instant booking. By appointment only. If you reach the contact page, you already understand what you're asking for. That understanding is worth more than a higher conversion rate from uncommitted browsers.
WhatsApp only
The contact form builds a pre-filled message and opens WhatsApp directly via wa.me. No email backend, no calendar, no chatbot. Marco responds same day. Every inquiry becomes a conversation, not a ticket.
URL-native i18n
No i18n library. A flat IT/EN translation object in a single LanguageContext. Language is inferred from the URL path: /en/* = English. Switching language redirects to the equivalent slug — /gioielli ↔ /en/jewellery.
Dark map with one CSS line
The embedded Google Map uses: invert(90%) hue-rotate(180deg) saturate(0.3) brightness(0.8). Dark mode map with zero Maps API setup or billing.
The naming system — INITIVM, NAVTILVS, MVTARA NEBVLA, LEGIONE — is strong, but the site doesn't explain the logic anywhere. A brief "About the names" section, or a hover note on Latin piece names, would give curious visitors a door into the vocabulary without overexplaining. Right now the names land as atmosphere. Meaning would have been richer.
This isn't a store.
It's a studio. The site should feel like the door to one.
Client: Bottega MarcoAurelio · Rome, Italy · Built with Lovable