Marbled papers and leather-bound books are made at Giulio Giannini e Figlio, a sixth-generation Florentine bookbindery founded in 1856. Near Ponte Vecchio, Madova specialises in leather gloves made and fitted on-site, continuing the Donnini family's business since 1919. Scuola del Cuoio operates within the Santa Croce monastery, where the Gori and Casini families founded a leather school with the friars. That school began in 1950 to teach war orphans, and its workshop now sells leather goods directly to visitors.
Sixth-generation Florentine bookbindery founded in 1856, on Via dei Velluti next to Piazza Pitti in the Oltrarno district. Hand-decorates marbled papers and binds leather books, journals and photo albums, and has been featured by The Times, House & Garden and Conde Nast Traveller.
Best for Sixth-generation hand-bound books and marbled paper, Florence since 1856
Giulio Giannini e Figlio has occupied the same corner of the Oltrarno, steps from the Pitti Palace on Via dei Velluti, since the workshop was founded in 1856. It is now run by the sixth generation of the Giannini family, who trained in the same hand techniques -- marbling paper by hand and binding leather covers -- that the founder practiced when the neighborhood was still Florence's working artisan quarter.
The bottega produces marbled and hand-decorated papers, leather-bound journals and books, photo albums, greeting cards and personalized stationery, and also runs workshops teaching the traditional bookbinding and marbling techniques the shop still uses in production. The Oltrarno has long been Florence's district of craft workshops -- framers, goldsmiths, restorers -- and Giannini's survival across six generations in the same trade, on the same street, is itself part of what the shop is known for.
The workshop's work has drawn coverage from The Times, House & Garden, AD Magazine, Conde Nast Traveller and Corriere della Sera, press attention that has followed the family's reputation as one of the city's longest-running artisan bookbinders rather than any single product launch.
Family-run since 1919 near Florence's Ponte Vecchio, Madova has produced leather gloves exclusively across three generations, from founder Amedeo Donnini to today's four siblings. Every pair is still made and fitted on site at Via Guicciardini 1R.
Best for Leather gloves in every color, made and fitted on site in Florence
Madova was founded in 1919 by Amedeo Donnini, whose small Florence workshop made leather gloves for the city's prominent families and shops. Production stopped during the economic crisis and the Second World War, and the business did not reopen until 1945, when Amedeo's children — Ennio, Sergio, Rosanna and Maria — revived it and, in 1954, opened the retail shop and registered the Madova trademark that carries the family name to this day.
The shop sits on Via Guicciardini, the street that runs directly to the Ponte Vecchio, and the family describes itself as one of the only glovemakers left in Europe that both sells and produces exclusively leather gloves rather than diversifying into other accessories. That single-material focus has defined the house across its history: cutting, lining and finishing are done in-house, and customers are still fitted by hand at the counter rather than choosing by size chart alone.
Madova is now run by a fourth generation — Mauro, Franco, Andrea and Silvia — who have kept the workshop's original scope: leather gloves in a wide range of colors and linings, exported to the United States, Europe and Japan. Over a century after Amedeo Donnini's founding, the business remains what it started as: a single-family, single-product glove shop a few steps from one of Florence's most photographed bridges.
Florentine leather workshop founded in 1956 by brothers Piero and Roberto Peroni, known for hand-decorated 'cuoietto artistico fiorentino' leather made without stitching; now run by the third generation.
Best for Hand-finished belts and bags.
Pelletteria Peroni is a Florence leather workshop founded in 1956 by brothers Piero and Roberto Peroni. It is known for a hand technique called 'cuoietto artistico fiorentino,' an approach with roots in Renaissance-era Florence that decorates and assembles leather goods - often with gold-leaf detailing - without stitching. Pieces are cut, decorated and assembled by hand rather than by machine. The business has since passed to a third generation, brothers Maurizio and Marco Peroni, who continue the same hand techniques while adding their own design work. Over more than 65 years of operation it has received craft recognition, including honors from Eurispes in 2007 and from OmA in 2015.
Florence leather school and workshop inside the Franciscan monastery of Santa Croce, founded in 1950 by the Gori and Casini families with the friars to teach leatherworking to war orphans; still family-run, with visitors able to watch artisans work and buy directly from the workshop.
Best for Monastery-made leather goods and bespoke pieces.
Scuola del Cuoio was established after the Second World War through a partnership between the Franciscan friars of the Monastery of Santa Croce and the Gori and Casini families, Florentine leather artisans active since the 1930s. Marcello Gori and his brother-in-law Silvano Casini moved their workshop into the monastery's dormitory space, with the explicit mission of teaching leatherworking to war orphans as a practical trade. The school opened its doors to retail customers in May 1950. Following Gori's and Casini's deaths in 2003, the business passed to Gori's daughters - Laura, Francesca, and Barbara - who still run the school and workshop.
Florence gelateria founded 1929 (as Latteria Vivoli) by Serafino Vivoli, near Santa Croce; now run by the fourth generation, known for its affogato and additive-free artisanal gelato.
Best for Affogato, crema gelato and Florentine frozen desserts
Vivoli was founded in 1929 as Latteria Vivoli by Serafino, one of three brothers from the Tuscan town of Pelago, at Via dell'Isola delle Stinche 7r, in Florence's historic Santa Croce district, where the original shop still operates. The gelateria makes handmade gelato without additives, preservatives or artificial colorants, and its best-known offering is 'la gran crema al caffe,' an affogato-style combination of espresso and premium ice cream. Now run by the fourth generation of the same family, Vivoli has expanded beyond Florence with branches in New York (opened 2013) and at Disney Springs in Orlando.
Roberto Ugolini opened his bespoke shoemaking workshop on Via dei Michelozzi in Florence's Oltrarno district, opposite the Basilica di Santo Spirito, in 1995 at age 28, continuing a family shoemaking tradition spanning four generations.
Best for Bespoke patina, Florentine
Roberto Ugolini is a bespoke shoemaker whose ground-level workshop sits on Via dei Michelozzi in Florence's Oltrarno district, directly facing the Basilica di Santo Spirito. He opened the business in 1995 at age 28, but the craft runs deeper in his family: his great-grandfather, grandfather and father were all shoemakers before him, and he learned the trade within that Florentine artisan lineage rather than through a formal design school. Each pair is entirely handmade, with roughly thirty hours of work going into construction once a bespoke last has been developed for a client — a process that, including the customer's first pair, takes around half a year, with a documented discount on subsequent pairs made from the same last. The workshop has built an international clientele over three decades, with press coverage specifically noting a strong following among Japanese customers, alongside general recognition as one of Florence's most established bespoke shoemakers. Ugolini's business is representative of the broader Oltrarno artisan quarter, a concentration of small ateliers south of the Arno historically associated with leatherwork, shoemaking and other hand crafts, distinct from Florence's larger fashion-house retail presence on the north bank.
A woodworking bottega on Via Santo Spirito for four generations since 1895, Castorina turns and gilds frames, mirrors, columns and decorative objects using cabinetry and gilding techniques. Its Santo Spirito shop sells convex mirrors, carved sculptures and wall pieces made and finished by hand.
Ditta Artigianale was founded in 2013 by Francesco Sanapo, a three-time Italian barista champion, and Patrick Hoffer, positioned from the start against the dark-roast tradition that has defined Italian espresso for generations.
Best for Micro-lot espresso from direct producer relationships
Ditta Artigianale was founded in 2013 by Francesco Sanapo, a three-time Italian barista champion, and Patrick Hoffer, positioned from the start against the dark-roast tradition that has defined Italian espresso for generations. That's a harder break to make in Florence than in most third-wave cities: Italy's coffee culture is old and largely resistant to lighter roasting styles, and Ditta Artigianale is counted among the pioneers who pushed specialty coffee into that market anyway.
The roastery's sourcing runs on exclusive micro-lots and direct relationships with producers, an approach that lets it control quality and profile further upstream than buying through intermediaries would allow. Sanapo's three barista championship titles give the roastery a technical credibility that matters in a market where lighter roasts and cleaner extraction are still being introduced to a public raised on darker, heavier espresso.
For a country where the espresso ritual is famously resistant to change, Ditta Artigianale's Florence presence is as much an argument about what Italian coffee can be as it is a place to drink it.
Mokaflor was founded in 1950 by Vasco Bernini, a former accountant who moved into roasting and built a company now in its third generation of family ownership.
Best for Slow 15-20 minute discontinuous-drum roasts tuned per coffee variety
Mokaflor was founded in 1950 by Vasco Bernini, a former accountant who moved into roasting and built a company now in its third generation of family ownership. Bernini's founding choice ran against the postwar Italian trend toward thick crema and heavy Robusta content, roasting styles built for volume and a particular textural signature rather than for variety-specific flavor.
Mokaflor's alternative was a slow discontinuous-drum roast, taking 15 to 20 minutes per batch and tuned separately for each variety rather than applying one profile across the board — a far longer and more deliberate process than the fast, high-volume roasting the market was moving toward at the time. That founding decision has carried through three generations of the same family running the company, meaning the current roasting approach is a continuation of Bernini's original break from convention rather than a later rebrand.
In a city and country where dark, fast-roasted, Robusta-heavy espresso became the default, Mokaflor's 15-to-20-minute discontinuous-drum process is a seven-decade-old counter-argument still being roasted out today.
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