Florentine Renaissance

Furo e Ponteruolo

Gelateria Santa Trinita

Green Life

During my recent trip to Florence, I was amazed to see how much the city had changed in the year since I last visited. There has been a substantial increase in the number of small shops offering artisan-handmade and eco-aware products. There has also been a corresponding increase in the number of hipsters 🙂 The two go hand in hand, of course.

My two favourite finds were Paolo at Furo e Punteruolo, and Green Life, both on Via del Giglio. Paolo runs a one-man factory, making the most beautiful bags, rucksacks, belts and other leather goods by hand. I particularly loved seeing him work with his old-skool Dickensian-style tools and the shop smells incredible. We agreed that he definitely needs to take on an apprentice so his skills don’t die out. He’s hoping to talk one of his children into it; if not he’s promised to take on someone else. His work is beautiful, make sure you visit and buy one of his gorgeous bags.

Green Life is a couple of doors away. They stock clothing and products made from sustainable fibres– bamboo, eucalyptus, etc. Their T-shirts are so soft, it’s ridiculous. I fell in love with a mustard-yellow handwoven jumper. The colour was a vegetable dye made from onion skins. Oh me, oh my. Definitely worth a visit. I cannot omit Gelateria Santa Trinita from the list. Their ice-creams are sublime, the girls working there are really sweet and they fully understand the importance of making an ice-cream choice 🙂 They are a good reason for crossing the Arno, and there’s a whole artisan community on the other side of the river that’s well worth visiting.

Then you have the showroom that rejoices in the name ‘Musee des Fabrics’ which always makes me smile. The above fabrics are hand-painted silks. I didn’t get a chance to go inside but what I could see looked terrific.

Finally, there was the usual roster of fabulous products from the high-end brands : Prada, Ferragamo, Gucci etc etc.

Just in case you are now beginning to feel that Italians have gone soft, make sure you get a look at L’Importuno which was carved by Michelangelo on the bricks of Palazzo Vecchio. Graffiti, genius-style. There are many stories about how he came to carve it. My favourite one is that he was accosted by a lunatic/bore as he crossed the Piazza della Signoria on his way to work every single day, and that one day he finally snapped. As the man went on and on, he carved his likeness in the stone.

L’Importuno

I leave you with my favourite memory of Florence: a signboard outside one of the food shops: