Feet First Into Florence - A Shoe Buying Guide

It's fairly common these days to make shopping excursions to other cities in Europe or added abroad and Florence indeed is no exception. With deal flights and great value Florence apartments to first be snapped up, the budget is then left open to splash out. Florence, being the shoe capital of the world thanks to hundreds of years perfecting the skill, is the best bet for those on a shoe mission. So here's the shortlist for where to put your feet first in Florence.

The first stop should be on Via de' Tornabuoni, even if only to stare at the shoe creations, in market such as Gucci, Prada and Pucci, with slightly lower prices in Florence than elsewhere.

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Adjacent is the rival street for luxury stores, Via della Vigna Nuova, with shoes by Cesare Paciotti and Beltrami.

Staying on the shoe theme but without necessarily shopping, shoe fanatics will without fail appreciate the Ferragamo shoe museum at the bottom of Via de' Tornabuoni, which is homage to the shoe designers' range from the last century. There is of course, a large Salvatore Ferragamo store to study the contemporary collections of comfortable, high-style footwear.

Next, head towards Florence's monumental Duomo, and check out the young and colourful styles in Calzoleria Bologna, a reasonably priced store on Piazza San Giovanni.

On the other side of the Duomo, by the Piazza del Duomo and Via de' Cerretani, there's a small shoe store called Gilardini.

Another key street for shoe shopping is Via Porta Rossa. Two shoe market along this street to try are Nannini and Spazio A for shoes by Moschino and Narcisso Rodriguez. The cross-street Via Por Santa Maria has one or two places worth checking out. Guy Di Casprini Anna Maria can be found there.

Not to be missed on Via Por Santa Maria is one of Florence's exclusive franchises, Raspini, which stocks its own footwear as well as other designers, for example Miu Miu. The Raspini store also has branches on Via Roma, Via Martelli and a beautiful vintage shoe store on Via Calimaruzza.

For a vast array of cheap and cheerful shoes, head onto Via del Corso for the Peppe Peluso store, which has cheap footwear with the Italian seal of quality.

Finally, Florence is notable for its custom made shoes. Visit the workshops of Mannina or Stefano Berner, both in Oltrarno, to see the cobblers manufacture the highest potential footwear, from scratch. It's possible to pick from a vast array of materials and skins and have a unique pair of shoes made for you, at a cost of nearby Eur1000. Even if this stretches the shoe buying budget, the market are a must-see for a shoe buying expedition to Florence.

Feet First Into Florence - A Shoe Buying Guide

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Florence - A Portrait by Michael Levey

Having read Michael Levey's From Giotto to Cezanne and A History of Western Art, I approached Florence - A Portrait mental I knew what to expect. I did find the concentration to detail, the keen valuable assessment and aesthetics that I expected. I did not envisage the book would turn out also to be quite the stupendous work of scholarship and erudition that it is. Florence - A Portrait is much more than a history of art in the city state. It is practically a biography of the place, replete with historical, economic and political detail. What is missing, of course, is a picture of Florentine life from the point of view of the lowly citizen, but we cannot criticize Michael Levey for not together with what probably does not exist.

I visited Florence thirty years ago and have never returned. At the time, memories of Kenneth Clark's Civilisation were very clear in my mind and I focused on renaissance Florence, practically to the derision of the rest. Even after such time I found my memories of the architecture, paintings and sculptures were still fresh, however, when I read Michael Levey's descriptions. But his descriptions do more than merely list a proximity or critique a style. He offers context, valuable evaluation, origins and influences when he considers these - and any - works of art. He identifies flattery or criticism, idolatry or satire where an untutored eye would see only colours and shapes.

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The book is presented chronologically. It walks us through the early years of the renaissance and deals with the extent of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in wee detail. Then, as a more anonymous baroque era dawns, the account speeds up somewhat.

Michael Levey also makes crucial and leading points about the nature of Florentine government in this later era, an era that is so often dismissed as decadent when compared to the golden age that preceded it. The account is comprehensive, detailed and illuminating, but is written in a consuming style which is never dull. It's a book that would be more consuming after a visit than before and would not work as a guide book on grounds of size and weight! But it is a truly rewarding read.

It is excellent in its rehabilitation of the baroque era. Most visitors to Florence are there for the renaissance, and this later work is often dismissed as over-ornate, opulence for opulence sake, over-stated, crass bad taste. Michael Levey corrects this view by evaluating this later duration in the context of and as a amelioration of its precursor. While reading his account, I was curious to learn just how much those who commissioned works naturally wanted to make a grandiloquent statement about wealth and power. So Damien Hearst's skull is conceptually right within the tradition of Western art. Michael Level, incidentally, also pointed out that late medieval and early renaissance artists were often pressured into using greater quantities of gold leaf to endow as much value as possible to their work. There is, after all, very wee that's new under this sun.

Florence - A Portrait by Michael Levey

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