Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella

The Dominican friars of Santa Maria Novella grew medicinal herbs and compounded remedies from the thirteenth century; their pharmacy, trading with the public from 1612, makes this arguably the oldest apothecary still operating anywhere. The frescoed halls on Via della Scala — former chapel among them — sell preparations whose recipes descend directly from the friars: Acqua della Regina, the citrus cologne created for Catherine de' Medici before her departure for France; Acqua di Santa Maria Novella, the 'anti-hysteria water' still sold as a curiosity; rose water, pot-pourri from Florentine hills, almond soaps aged like cheeses. Production continues in Florence with the herbal traditions intact. The visit is half museum, half shop, wholly Florentine. Acqua della Regina — sold today as Santa Maria Novella's signature cologne — is the essential purchase: four centuries of continuous perfumery in one bottle.

Walk the frescoed sacristy rooms before shopping; the pot-pourri, aged in terracotta from Florentine hills, is the purchase that carries the building's own scent home.