I discovered about Apritimoda Firenze 2018 purely by chance, one morning when I was walking through the Santa María Novella station to get some train tickets. I saw it posted on a screen, and when I got home that afternoon I looked it up on Google.

Apritimoda is an event that has already taken place the past year in Milano where, as you might know, the fashion industry has a great impact on everyday life. The event is a kind of weekend-ish Openhouse, where important fashion houses and local ateliers open their doors for free (sometimes even with guided tours) to publicize the philosophy of the brand and their way of approach design and creativity. In my case, my friend and I decided to make the most of that weekend and visit as many places as possible. In this post, I will tell you a little about what we did on the first day of Apritimoda Firenze 2018, which was to visit the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum and the headquarters of the Aquazzura shoe brand in the Palazzo Corsini, on the banks of the Arno river and very close to the Galleria degli Uffizi.

To start the day, my biggest surprise was to learn a little more about the life of Salvatore Ferragamo at his dedicated Museum at the basement of their headquarters in Piazza di Santa Trinita: how he made the jump from a small, very poor Italian village to the United States to forge a strong footwear company for the Hollywood stars of that time (we're talking here of 20's era). I was delighted to know that, to make his designs and adapt them to the needs of his clients, Mr. Ferragamo studied biology, mechanics, and engineering, to obtain the necessary tools for the proper functioning of the foot every time we walk with heels (or any type of shoe, actually). I liked knowing how he based his designs on proportions, the quality of the materials and the though, thoughtful design. It was exciting!

In the afternoon, we visited the Aquazzura headquarters. It is in a beautiful Palazzo next to the Arno river, called Palazzo Corsini. It's the typical place you imagine when they say "Italian style": never-ending high ceilings with vaults and wonderful paintings of a lot of colors, where they usually organize Christmas markets and charity events. But I was totally unaware that this shoe brand had its offices and showrooms on the top floor! It was a fantastic surprise to be able to experience first hand this space where creativity (and baroque-ish style) was around everywhere: colorful walls to match the furniture, mirror tables (I need those tables in my house), walls full of supports to place drawings and sketches and above all, many magazines and books on fashion, design, and architecture.