Oldest Pharmacy in Florence: Visiting Santa Maria Novella (and What to Buy)
The oldest pharmacy in Florence — and by most accounts one of the oldest still operating anywhere in the world — is the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, at Via della Scala 16, a few steps from the train station. Dominican friars began growing medicinal herbs and preparing remedies here in 1221; the apothecary […]
What to Wear in Florence: A Local Stylist’s Guide (Season by Season)
Dress for Florence and you need to solve exactly three problems: stone streets that punish the wrong shoes, weather that swings hard between seasons (and within a single day), and churches that won’t let you in with bare shoulders or short shorts. Solve those three and you can wear almost anything — Florentines themselves dress […]
Florence Ponte Vecchio Shops: What They Sell (and What’s Worth Buying)
The shops on the Ponte Vecchio sell one thing: jewelry. Gold above all — chains, bracelets, rings sold partly by weight — plus watches, gemstones and estate pieces, in about fifty tiny storefronts stacked along both parapets of Florence’s oldest bridge. Whether you should buy there is a different question, and the honest answer is: […]
Flea Markets in Florence: Where to Hunt for Antiques and Vintage Treasures
Florence has one permanent flea market and a handful of monthly ones, and the difference matters. The permanent one — the Mercato delle Pulci at Largo Pietro Annigoni, near Sant’Ambrogio — is where you go any day of the week for prints, silverware, costume jewelry and mid-century oddments. The monthly fairs, Santo Spirito above all, […]
San Lorenzo Leather Market: How to Buy Real Leather (and Skip the Fakes)
The San Lorenzo leather market is the open-air market that wraps around the Mercato Centrale, along Via dell’Ariento and the streets between the Medici Chapels and the food hall. It’s the single most famous place to buy leather in Florence — and, honestly, the place where most tourists overpay for bags that were never near […]
Perfume Workshop Florence: Where to Find Unique Fragrances in the City
If you’re looking for a perfume workshop in Florence, you’re looking for something you won’t find in any chain store and that doesn’t come from any online catalogue. You’re looking for a fragrance that is born in a workshop, from hands that know their raw materials, from a tradition that has existed in Florence for […]
Florence Leather Workshop: How to Recognise the Real Made in Italy (and Where to Find It)
If you’re looking for a Florence leather workshop, the first thing you need to know is that not everything sold as “Florentine leather” actually is. Florence is historically one of the world’s leading centres for leatherworking, and that reputation has generated a parallel market full of products that present themselves as handcrafted without being so. […]
Florence Artisan Tour: How to Discover the City’s Hidden Workshops
If you’re looking for a Florence artisan tour, you’ve probably already understood that the city you see from the street is not all of Florence. Behind the doors of narrow alleys, in inner courtyards, in workshops with no signs, there is a Florence that still works with its hands, passes down ancient techniques and produces […]
Jewelry Stores in Florence Italy: Where to Find Unique Pieces (and How to Recognise Them)
If you’re looking for jewelry stores in Florence Italy, the first thing to know is that not every window display you see is the same. Florence has one of the oldest and most prestigious goldsmithing traditions in Europe, but today it coexists with a large number of shops selling industrial products dressed up as “handmade”. […]
Personal Shopper Florence: What They Actually Do (and When It Makes Sense)
If you’re looking for a personal shopper Florence, you’ve probably already figured out one thing: wandering shops on your own isn’t enough. Either you have limited time and don’t want to waste it, or you want to buy well without making mistakes, or you simply want to experience Florence differently from the usual circuits. In […]