There is no end to elegant shopping in Florence, the capital of Italy's Tuscany region. Aristocratic Via de' Tornabuoni promises all the high-end delights of cities such as Hong Kong and New York. Stroll the fashionable street and window-shop all the usual suspects - Prada, Bulgari, Ferragamo - but the unique purchases are to be found in the bottegas, the workshops in which Florentine artisans still practise ancient crafts. While it is possible to see some of their wares in small shops attached to their ateliers, others can be viewed by appointment only in their palazzo workshops.
An appointment to have a personalised scent created by philosopher-perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi (tel: 39 055 234 1187;
www.lorenzovilloresi.it) is possible ... if he's not busy with members of the Saudi royal family or European film stars. The aristocratic Villoresi (right), who sees himself in the tradition of ancient perfumers, meets clients on the top floor of his 15th-century palazzo, on Via de' Bardi, where, like an alchemist, he creates fragrances from mixtures of the more than 1,000 scents he has acquired on his travels. 'No two fragrances are the same,' he explains. 'I create perfumes of the imagination.' Don't expect bargain-basement prices; a consultation and a 100ml bottle of perfume will relieve you of about HK$10,000.
Another Florentine practising an arcane craft is master shoemaker Stefano Bemer, owner of Bemer's (Via di Camaldoli, 10/r, tel: 39 055 222 462;
www.stefanobemer.it). Wearing a stained, worn apron, he sits in his cramped, unassuming shop and arduously creates fashionable men's shoes from rare leather, traditional vegetable glues, copper nails and hand-twisted thread. Bemer, who started his career in a shoe-repair shop, says he committed himself to centuries-old shoemaking techniques the first time he saw a pair of beautifully handmade shoes. 'The moment I saw those shoes,' he says, 'I understood what I wanted to do until I was old.' Bemer makes a maximum of 180 pairs a year; each involving three consultations at his shop and a hefty price tag from HK$15,000 to HK$25,000.
For more affordable purchases visit Giulio Giannini e Figlio (Piazza Pitti, 37/r; tel: 39 055 212 621;
www.giuliogiannini.it) for marbled paper and hand-bound books. There are many imitators of this old Florentine family business but with six generations under its belt, the Giannini dynasty has made a science of its art. Mustachioed Guido Giannini, whose clients include the likes of David Bowie, uses the same secret recipes for staining the paper and works with some of the same 16th-century tools his ancestors used to make paper and bind books for popes and princes.
Florence is known for its precious wines made from sangiovese and syrah grapes. Now Dr Alberto Giannotti, whose family has been producing fine Tuscan wines for 200 years, has made some that are even more precious. Several vintages are bottled with hand-crafted jewelled labels fashioned by the oldest house of jewellers in the world. The Torrinis, who have been making jewellery for 25 generations, wrap each bottle in a label made of white gold and then, one by one, embed between 134 and 168 diamonds into the gold (making about 51/2 carats a bottle). Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli and others who can afford the bling send the empty bottle back to the house of Torrini to have the diamonds and gold turned into a handcrafted item of jewellery. An order includes dinner at Fattoria Villa l'Olmo (Via Imprunetana per Tavarnuzze, 21; tel: 39 055 231 1311) and a consultation with the Torrini jeweller. Prices are from HK$77,000 to HK$116,000. See
www.diadema-wine.com.
Later, when you have your reconstituted label/chunk of jewellery, you'll need somewhere to keep it. That means a handmade leather box from the atelier of Paolo Carandini (Via de Maci, 73/r; tel: 39 055 245 397). For Carandini's colourful solutions to your storage problems, you - and the movie stars and museums he counts among his clientele - can expect to pay from HK$1,000 to HK$3,000.