Being a Florentine craftsman for a day

This tour is designed for travellers who wish to gain insight into the production of Florentine artisans and discover an authentic side of the city’s history. With your private English-speaking guide you will have the opportunity to visit Florentine artisans and learn about their passion. For several centuries Florence has been the capital of handicrafts, and even today you only need to walk through the historic center to discover the many craft stores. The “workshops” are still active and numerous. Artisans use the techniques and tools of yesteryear, and thanks to these small workshops Florence retains its traditional know-how. Leatherworkers, goldsmiths, shoemakers, master perfumers have long been making original and unique artifacts.

Here are some ideas for meetings during your visit!

GUIDED TOUR TO A FIORENTINE COMMERCE LABORATORY: What patience!

In contrast to the traditional mosaic that uses small tiles (called tesserae), “Fla inlay stonework” (or “Florentine mosaic”) employs larger tiles and is chosen for their shape, color, opacity, luster and shades of their grain to create the final design. They thus create works of art for furniture, paintings, or various objects, up to perfect copies of paintings. The work of the Florentine “commesso” still makes the reputation of Florentine artists, in all museums. In the city still, only three workshops perpetuate this old technique.

GUIDED TOUR TO A FIORENTINE PAPER LABORATORY: Amazing!

This is one of the most striking ways to decorate paper by hand. The demonstration that the craftsman makes for us is always suggestive; the children will be delighted to witness this making and can participate in this experience. Marbled paper is not, contrary to popular belief, a Florentine invention. It is a paper decoration technique of Chinese and Japanese origin: in fact, the earliest examples of decorative marbling date back to the 8th century and are found in Japan. Merchants in the Far East lined boxes of goods with these decorations, and through this packaging, the paper came to the West, which spread as decoration on book covers. In Florence, this technique found fertile ground in the late 1400s, and within a few centuries, the Tuscan capital became a world leader in this field, so much so that it was renamed marbled paper.

Today the same technique is also used for leather decoration.

GUIDED TOUR WITH A PERFUME MASTER: the pleasure of the nose!

The famous perfume, later known as Eau de Cologne, was created in Florence for the future queen of France, Catherine de Medici. Later Catherine transmitted to the French royal court a passion for perfumes, which would give rise to the great perfume industry in France. There are numerous stores in Florence, from the best-known and famous Officina del Profumo Santa Maria Novella also on Via della Scala or, more hidden, Aqua Flor (not far from the church of Santa Croce), or the master perfumer Sileno (in the San Nicolo’ district) who in 2018 was recognized as one of the best artisans in Italy. Let yourself be enchanted by their philosophy!