Florence: the city of Stendhal Syndrome

Given that bad joke shows and "my neighbors around the world" shows are currently all the rage on TV, I'm joining the trend with a post about addresses I found useful on my trips to Florence. I've thought about pitching a new show to a network titled "Aristocrats Around the World". In the first episode, I would appear somewhere saying that, after my family and friends, what I miss most is ham, beers, and tapas. In the second, it would be me again, somewhere else in the world, talking about how expensive olive oil is, showing frozen blood sausage in the fridge, and complaining about how different locals are from Spaniards because they don't make noise in restaurants or on the street. We would continue with a third episode in which a tanned version of myself, this time on a paradisiacal beach, would introduce you to my best local friends, who are always a Malay engineer in a gray shirt and another misguided Spaniard, because what's clear is that you cross the world to meet your lifelong friends... Spaniards.

While I'm still pondering the idea, I'll leave you with a few useful addresses in Florence. Be warned, my concept of usefulness might be a bit peculiar.

• Eredi Chiarini (Via Roma 16): THE men's store, THE one, seriously, I haven't seen anything like it anywhere. Well, yes, Ralph Lauren stores in the US are similar, but this is better because it's a store you enter through a tiny door and after going up two floors, you arrive at a kind of temple of good masculine taste, with an excellent selection of brands, bespoke tailoring, shoes, accessories, perfumes, and a succession of wonderful rooms that will make you experience Stendhal syndrome more intensely than in the Uffizi Gallery. It is a regular stop for Scott Schuman when he goes to the Pitti fair, and one of its salespeople appears so frequently in Sartorialist that they call him "la celebritá" among themselves.
  

The bad news: the women's section is awful. The good news: across the street is Luisa Via Roma, which is THE women's store... and for any human being on the face of the earth who likes fashion. Impressive, it has nothing to envy Colette.

• Luigi (via de Gondi): the Consort grows his beard the week before going to Florence just so Luigi, a 70-year-old man who apparently has the hands of a teenager and the pulse of a surgeon, can shave him. According to him, it's a pleasure to be shaven with a straight razor by this man, even when he runs it over your Adam's apple. To me, it seems like an exercise in supreme trust, especially being in Italy and having seen so many mafia movies where revenge is served in a barbershop; although the truth is that he leaves him incredibly smooth, smelling like a man of honor, and shaves so closely that he can go at least three days without shaving again.
  

Although what is truly spectacular about the place is not just the plates and cups (wow, the one with the military jacket!) but the views that can be seen from there. You instantly relax, the light, the silence, the smells... you could stay contemplating Tuscany for hours in a state of absolute peace and at the same time recharge your batteries.

And of course, one can never leave Florence without gladly contemplating the most beautiful thing in the whole city...

Hang in there, it's Monday.

Thousands of kisses,

The Countess, thinking of holidays

Previous episodes of "Aristocrats Around the World":
-New York
-Amalfi Coast