FLORENCE IS HEAVEN FOR SHOPPERS. Within a small, easily walkable area, it offers luxury to artisan treasures, along with outdoor markets where you can bargain for scarves, leather, and kitschy souvenirs.
Via Tornabuoni is the center for high-end fashion, with such designers as Emilio Pucci, Giorgio Armani, and Gucci. To get more Gucci, visit the Gucci Museo on nearby Piazza Signoria, where you’ll find displays documenting the history of the fashion powerhouse, a shop that custom makes purses, and a chic Restaurant and Caffè.
Gucci Museo: Piazza Signoria 10, open 10-8, Restaurant/Caffè 10-11 (www.guccimuseo.com)
My favorite on the Via Tornabuoni stretch is:
Ferragamo Museum and Store
Come here to marvel over the creations of Salvatore Ferragamo, who was the grandpapa of modern Italian shoe fashion. These days his widow Wanda is queen of the company. She’s so beloved by Italians they’ve even named a rose in her honor.
The shop is in a medieval palace that Ferragamo bought in 1938, after his rise to success in Hollywood, designing shoes for movies such as The Ten Commandments. Actresses clamored for his creations to wear off the set, and he became “The Shoemaker to the Stars.” What’s always separated Ferragamo’s shoes from the pack is that he consistently combined glamour with comfort. He was so obsessed he even took anatomy classes at the University of Southern California, so he could learn all about the foot.
The Ferragamo Museum, in the lower level of the store, pays homage to Salvatore with fantastic displays and photos of celebrities showing off his shoes—from Carmen Miranda to Katharine Hepburn to Andy Warhol. A video tells the story of Ferragamo’s life—a man of humble beginnings from a village in southern Italy, who created what has become a fashion empire.
Shopping upstairs from the museum is a treat, especially in the boutique, where you’ll find limited edition copies of such beauties as the heels Ferragamo designed for Marilyn Monroe for Some Like It Hot. And you may even see Wanda, who regularly stops by.
Ferragamo Museum and Store: Piazza Santa Trinita 5, open daily: 10-6 (www.museoferragamo.it)
Artisan Shopping, a few of my favorite things:
Beauty Products
Don’t miss this place. Here gorgeously frescoed ceilings, sculpted columns and arches, stained glass windows, and a staff dressed in chic black takes a shopping experience to a mystical level.
The shop was a fourteenth-century Gothic church of Dominican friars, which was turned into a farmacia to sell their potions in 1612. Today scent scientists reproduce the monk’s recipes, and their creations are shipped all over the world.
Santa Maria Novella potpourri, a blend of ten different herbs and flowers from the surrounding hills, comes in monogrammed satin pouches and makes a perfect gift. The top perfume choice is Acqua di Colonia, a citrus and bergamot blend created for Catherine de’ Medici when she went off to Paris to marry Henry II. There’s also Acqua di Santa Maria Novella (aka anti-hysteria water), which was created when tight-corset-wearing gals needed relief from the vapors. It’s now recommended as a digestive aid.
Jewelry
Caputi is a bold designer, who has rocked the high fashion world since 1975 with her unique, plastique jewelry. Both stores are delightfully welcoming, and it’s a joy to be surrounded by her fun, vibrant bangles and necklaces.
All the jewelry shops on the Ponte Vecchio used to be vegetable and fish stalls. Then the Medicis decided to build the Vasari corridor over the bridge to connect their two palaces. “That stench!” they said to the merchants, kicked them out, and replaced them with goldsmiths. These days, according to Florentines, the only place to shop among the bridge’s many choices is Fratelli Piccini, owned by the same family since 1903.
As I walked by the fifteenth-century building that’s home to Dari’s shop, I was drawn inside by the sounds of a classical guitar. The player was the master goldsmith Alessandro Dari himself, sitting there in a muscle shirt, surrounded by cases of his jewelry, inspired by Florentine architecture. His rings and pendants, shaped like domes or castles and studded with gems, are extraordinary.
Ceramics
Colorful hand-painted designs (inspired by Renaissance tradition or modern twists) adorn the enticing displays of ceramics in this family run shop. You can see artisans in action in the back workshop, and they also offer classes for groups to get hands-on experience of ceramic making.
Vibrant displays of hand-painted ceramics from all over Italy fill this tiny shop, including small items (coasters and wine stoppers) that make great quality souvenirs.
Leather
Tucked behind the Santa Croce church, this store and workshop was once a monastery built by the Medici. You can watch artisans at their workstations crafting leather goods, or, with torch in hand, magically embossing them with gold filigree. Everything for sale is of the highest quality, cut and sewn right here, using leather tanned from Tuscan experts. There are desk sets, wallets, jackets, and a great selection of purses. The expert staff offers custom design services to create anything you wish, and you can take classes here to learn more about the art of leather making.
Allessandra Cellerini carries on the tradition she learned from her father Silvano, who began leather crafting as a teenager in the 1940s. He continues to advise her and her assistants in this glamorous shop, where beautiful handbags, belts, and accessories inspire sighs.
Gloves
The Donnini family has been creating leather gloves in Florence since 1919. Their tiny shop, just over the Ponte Vecchio, is crammed with beauteous cashmere and silk-lined leather gloves, that you’d pay twice the price for back home.
Shoes: Handmade
Calzature Francesco da Firenze, Via Santo Spirito 62r, open 10-1, 4-7:30, closed Sunday
Stop by this family-run Oltrarno shop for handmade shoes, or leather sandals that they can customize for you in 24 hours.
Lingerie, Lace, Embroidery
An adorable, shoebox-sized shop that sells handmade luxurious silk lingerie with accents of lace, children’s wear, and reasonably priced embroidered tea towels and table linens. It’s family run, under the direction of Grazia, who has been embroidering since the age of eight, and who also has a workshop and store in Greve in Chianti.
Wow! Seven glorious rooms in the former Palazzo Aldobrandini show off Loretta’s awesome hand- and machine-made pieces—from table linens, outfits for newborns that make grandmamas melt, and elegant lingerie. Nicole Kidman and Madonna are fans.
Paper
Artisan Erin Ciulla owns this enchanting, tiny store and workshop, with a fabulous line of journals, frames, and gorgeous paper, that’s lower priced than most others in town. She’s also expert at customizing products to suit your desires.
Outdoor markets offer leather goods, scarves, and cheap souvenirs. Be prepared for aggressive sales pitches as you walk along, and if you’re paying cash, go ahead and bargain:
The bronze wild boar statue here holds a tradition similar to Rome’s Trevi Fountain: if you pet its snout, you are ensured a return to Florence.
Slightly off the beaten track, where you’ll find more locals:
A fabulous food market, surrounded by stalls selling kitchen gadgets and bargain clothing, open Monday-Saturday, 7-2
Golden Day: Enjoy the Via Tornabuoni shopping scene and lunch at Procacci, a gem of a six-table wine bar/deli from 1885, famous for its truffle-based specialties. Have a panino slathered with truffle butter and glass of Antinori wine. Via de Tornabuoni 64, open 10-8, closed Sunday. (www.procacci1885.it)