Zecchi Colori e Belle Arti

Zecchi trades from Via dello Studio, a street that takes its name from the building it occupies: a fragment of the old "Studio Fiorentino," Florence's first university, founded in 1348. A colour shop is documented on the same street from at least the second half of the 19th century under the name Colorificio Toscano, before moving to the present premises in 1974. Around 1920, Ugo Ercoli took the business over as an outlet for the paints made at his own factory in Calenzano; during the Second World War he hired Adolfo Zecchi, who earned enough trust to buy the business within a few years, with the Zecchi family taking full ownership in the early 1950s.

The shop's present character was set in the late 1960s, when Sandro and Massimo Zecchi pushed the business toward specialization — not just selling colour but researching and recovering historic Florentine painting and craft techniques, guided by Cennino Cennini's 14th-century treatise "Il Libro d'Arte." That research orientation made Zecchi a reference point for restorers as well as painters: the shop's materials have gone into the restoration of Florentine artworks and international masterpieces, and it counts working artists and students from Florence's Academy of Fine Arts among its regular clientele.

Zecchi still sells the full range of a working colour shop — paints, brushes, papers, canvases and pigments — from its address a few steps from the Duomo, though the shop currently states it cannot currently manage national or international shipments and serves customers in person.