Florence - A town of Artisans

Dimly Lit workshops, dusty studios and narrow alleyways lie in the shadow of the Palazzo Pitti, an other-world Florence that travellers rarely see. For centuries in Oltrarno, tiny artisan businesses have been turning out first-class articles - from woven textiles to shoes of the finest leather.

There is a saying in Oltrarno. Every door opens into a craftman's workshop here. If you every need a tool or some service, all you need is to go maybe a few buildings further down.

The streets south of Arno have always been the home of craftsmen, since the 12th century. Its population bloomed when Florence city's Roman buildings no longer offered sufficient living space. Oltrarno, comprising San Frediano, Santo Spirito, and San Nicolo, became a small town in its own right, an area where newly rich merchants found the space to build gaudy palaces while artisans could go about their normal trade.

After all, Florence's well-to-do citizens needed furnitures, stucco, silverware, fabrics and frescoes. A close network of small family businesses arose that could produce anything that was need in cultivated Renaissance life and later centuries - from porcerlain and fabrics to a complete church altar.

Many artisans pass their businesses generation to generation. There are a few who made fame only recently, settlers from other cities and town. Florence offers a vibrant unique sensation in the preservation of cultures tangibly. Many of such beauties were exported to regions in Asia, London and Paris.