Top 10 shopping opportunities in Florence

The best shops, markets, and souvenirs to bring home from Florence

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TOURS FROM OUR TRUSTED PARTNERS that include Florence

Intrepid Travel
Intrepid Travel 2011 Italy trips
• Best of ItalyPartner (15 days)
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• Highlights of ItalyPartner (8 days)
• Tuscan ExpressPartner (7 days)

Gap Adventures
G Adventures 2011 Italy trips
• Ultimate ItalyPartner (13 days)
• Italy Culture and History Explored (9 days)
• The Taste of TuscanyPartner (8 days)
• Venice to Rome AdventurePartner (8 days)
• Italy Family AdventurePartner (10 days)

iExplore
iExplore Italy trips 2011
• Italy Experience (9 days)
• Italy in Style (9 days)
• Magical Tuscany & Portofino Peninsula (10 days)
• Tuscan Delights (8 days)
• Splendors of Italy & Southern France (16 days)

The San Lorenzo leather market in Florence1) The San Lorenzo leather market - The streets around the Medici family church are now filled with a daily outdoor market of leather goods, T-shirts, and other excellent Florentine souvenirs.

I get much of my holiday shopping done here (who doesn't appreciate a leather wallet or belt straight from Florence?)... Full Story

2) Fashion boutiques around Via Tornabuoni - Via de' Tornabuoni is the main shopping drag of Florence when it comes to high fashion. It is anchored at the southern end by the castle-like Palazzo Ferragamo (Via de' Tornabuoni 4–14r, tel. +39-055-292-123, www.ferragamo.it), a museum (and sales outlet) for the footwear company started by that world-famous cobbler to the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. This is but one of many international fashion flagship stores on—or in the general vicinity of—this street, including:

...And that's just the top names in homegrown fashion talent! Get your credit cards ready.

3) Enoteca Alessi - Unassuming, not overpriced, and just two blocks south of the Duomo—in short, the perfect store to shop for Tuscan wines. Don't be discouraged by the paucity of bottles you'll see when you first enter. The large ground floor room is reserved more for chocolates and other fine edibles. The bulk of the wines—from refined vintages to excellent Tuscan table vino—are in the large cellars downstairs. Via dell'Oche 27–31r, tel. +39-055-214-966, www.enotecaalessi.it.

4) Scriptorium - Most stationery stories in Florence are obsessed with marbleized papers—which is fine and all, but I like this one for its focus on notebooks, photo albums, and journals filled with thick, creamy paper and bound in buttery leather covers. Calligraphy and signet wax sealing tools complete the medieval feel of the place. Branches: Via dei Servi 5–7r, tel. +39-055-211-804; Piazza de' Pitti 6 tel. +39-055-238-2272; www.scriptoriumfirenze.com.

5) Madova gloves - Tiny shop that does one thing and one thing only: make the supplest, most gorgeous hand-crafted leather gloves in the world. They have been doing so since 1919 from a jewelbox-sized shop at the corner just across the Ponte Vecchio on the Oltrarno side. Just walk in, lay your hand on a velvet cushion, and they will instantly and perfectly eyeball your size (and start guessing at your style) and begin taking down thin boxes of potential purchases from the floor-to-ceiling shelves. Via Guicciardini 1r, tel. +39-055-239-6526, www.madova.com.

6) La Botteghina del Ceramista - My personal choice for the best prices on a variety of exquisite hand-painted Tuscan ceramics. Small shop, but with an excellent selection. They buy their wares directly from the top potters in the surrounding region, and as a admitted ceramics lover who has personally visited many of their providers, I can vouch that their markup is minimal—and well worth it for the convenience of instant comparison shopping (though you can also use their showroom to get a sense of which ceramicists you might want to visit in person later in your travels). Via Guelfa 5r, tel. +39-055-287-367.

7) Pitti Mosaici - Great pietra dura stone inlay—a dying Florentine art that dated back to Renaissance times—from a workshop established in 1900. Piazza Pitti 23–24r and Via Guicciardini 60r, tel. +39-055-282-127, www.pittimosaici.it.

8) BM Bookshop - English-language bookseller with an excellent selection of books about Florence, Tuscany, and Italy, from novels to cookbooks to art histories. Borgo Ognissanti 4r, tel. +39-055-294-575.

9) Mercato Nuovo / Mercato del Porcellino - Florence's old covered "Straw Market" actually dates back to the 11th century, but has been called the "New Market" since 1551, when it became shaded by a lovely Renaissance loggia. It still has a stall or two selling straw hats and bags, but mostly it's tourist souvenirs now (plus a Renaissance bronze boar everyone rubs on the snout for good luck). Good bookshop across from it, too... Full story

10) Ponte Vecchio - Good quality jewelry at astronomical prices in one of the planet's most amazing shopping settings—a gaggle of teensy shops lining both sides of a medieval bridge... Full story

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This material was last updated January 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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