Inside Florence

Touring the traditional craft workshops and historic palazzi that help to preserve Florence's exceptional art and architecture

Picturesque medieval streets, breathtaking cathedrals and legendary art: there is much to love about the city of Florence, as its droves of tourists will tell you. Yet the city is not completely overrun by visitors, and Florence's locals are eyewitnesses to today's world while also heirs to a centuries-old history of tradition, creativity and independence. Livia Frescobaldi invites readers to discover the city that lies beyond the tourist realms, in the form of the age-old craft workshops and their ability to preserve all that makes Florence one of the world's most admired cities. Together with photographers Alessandro Moggi and Eugenia Maffei, Frescobaldi charts an itinerary through which to discover the arts and crafts. We visit the botteghe, or storefronts, housing these time-honored practices: framers, stonemasons working in marble or brilliant pietra dura, printmakers and ironworkers. Meanwhile, Frescobaldi also stops to show us some of the most historic palazzi still inhabited and cared for, such as the 13th-century villa home to fashion's Pucci family, or a former monastery-turned-mansion once belonging to Henry Brewster, an American expatriate in Florence. With essays rich in anecdote and admiration, Frescobaldi offers an intimate and original view of what it means to live in Florence today. Livia Frescobaldi grew up in Florence's Oltrarno district. As an appraiser, she has produced valuations for private estates and cultural sites across Italy. She also established the Associazione Amici di Doccia--which she heads--for research into and preservation and promotion of the Ginori porcelain manufactory.