With the arrival of June, Florence is filled with new faces who have come for Pitti Uomo, one of the most important events for men’s fashion in Italy. Taking a break when possible given the tight schedule, here are some ideas for enjoying the city.

Hotel La Gemma

This evocative hotel is located in the Paleotti Palace in Via dei Cavalieri, in the center of the city. The architect behind the project is Tito Bellini, who gave life to this luxury refuge, based on the idea of the Florentine Cecchi family, the owners.

With 23 rooms and 16 suites, the hotel offers several options for guests: the lounge bar or the panoramic rooftop where they can enjoy a cocktail with a jazz music soundtrack, or the Allure spa with cutting-edge treatments by Biologique Recherche, such as a Turkish bath or a Jacuzzi.

The culinary choices are as good as the rest. The gourmet restaurant Luca’s is led by chef Paolo Airaudo, who has two Michelin stars for his restaurant Amelia in San Sebastian, Spain.

The hotel also organizes customized activities throughout Tuscany, from a private visit to local perfumeries, craft workshops and ateliers, to a cooking course in a farmhouse in the countryside, or a helicopter tour to admire the city ​​from above, and a tasting of fine wines in some of the most renowned wineries in the region.

Hotel La Gemma 
Via dei Cavalieri, 2C – 50123
05-50-10-5200
lagemmahotel.com

Ditta Artigianale Piazza Ferrucci

Ditta Artigianale is a project founded by baristas and coffee experts Francesco Sanapo and Patrick Hoffer, who have been dedicated to spreading the culture of coffee excellence for 10 years. The new opening brings back a concept important to the city — literary cafés — through the combination of coffee, of course, as well as a bakery and an important cultural component. Regular events are held here, inviting personalities from the art, culture, sports and other worlds to spark debate around various interesting topics.

Ditta Artigianale here collaborates with small farms, offering two signature coffee drinks designed for the new location: the Blueberry Ice Cream Latte and the Coffee Sunrise.

The bakery, unique to the company’s fifth location, is inspired by French and Northern European pastry, with a North American and Italian influence. The offering of pastry chef Francesca Grillotti ranges from croissants to pain au chocolat, up to the reinterpretation of buns, banana bread and loaves, chocolate babka, carrot or red velvet cake, and cheesecake.

Bread has its place, too, thanks to New York bread master Joshua Shuffman, who oversees the development of the specialties and all the bakery products.

The kitchen, another strong point, is led by chef Giacomo Faberi, who has created recipes with ethnic inspiration, coming from different parts of the world. For example, the asparagus pesto toast with burrata or tofu — a crunchy toast with homemade asparagus pesto, with spinach, toasted almonds, fresh cherry tomatoes and served with tofu or burrata. 

The location’s design and renovation were entrusted to the Baldini brothers’ Studio q-bic while the exteriors by Silvia Ghirelli were inspired by medieval gardens. The company is also a micro-roaster.

Ditta Artigianale Piazza Ferrucci
Lungarno Benvenuto Cellini, 1R – 50125
05-57-71-4875
dittaartigianale.com

Tiratissima Firenze

Meaning “very tight” in English, Tiratissima is a new food experience located at 14r in Viale Giovanni Amendola. The concept is to bring to the table Italian cuisine’s traditions of conviviality and “lo stare insieme” (“to be together”).

The pizza is 75 percent dehydrated dough with more than 24 hours of leavening, pulled by hand and cooked on stone and can be accompanied by cocktails, wines or Champagne. Among the house specialties are the classic red pizzas such as the margherita or white ones with mortadella, burrata and pistachios, cooked aubergine and truffles.

But the restaurant’s novelty is the more than three-meter-long pizza, which is served to large groups of guests.

At the entrance there is a counter where cocktails are offered, including the Perla Nera, with white and dark rum, lime, coal, apple and ginger; or the Regina, with gin, basil and fior di velvet top milk. The same drinks can be ordered directly at the table thanks to the cart that goes around.

The elegant yet informal interiors were created by designer Laura Tosetti and are split into different rooms such as the Farfalle (butterflies), Pappagallo (parrot) or Palme (palm) rooms.

Tiratissima Firenze 
Viale Amendola 14/20 r – 50121
05-58-89-2741
tiratissimafirenze.it

Valentino

The new Valentino store, which extends over 2,160 square feet and two floors, faces directly onto Piazza della Signoria, one of the largest and most storied squares in Florence.

The floors, defined by signature geometric patterns in Botticino and Sahara Noir marble, and the elements in onyx and wood contribute to the sense of warmth, elegance and calibrated luxury, while the details are inspired by Roman buildings.

Valentino has tapped craftsmen to produce furnishings for each space: Massimiliano Pipolo has created handmade ceramic handles, characterized by natural shapes suspended between decorative objects while furniture designer Alexandre Logé has created delicate sculpted plaster chandeliers, suspended white compositions with luminous extensions in the space.

The Valentino Unboxing collection, Valentino Garavani accessories and the Valentino eyewear and beauty lines are presented through a setup with unexpected design details.

Valentino
Piazza della Signoria, 13 – 50123
valentino.com

Fratelli Rossetti

The brand is celebrating 70 years in business in 2023, and, marking this milestone, it has opened a store in Florence, on Via Roma. The interiors of the new boutique were designed by the Architude architectural studio, which developed a new concept starting from the brand’s craftsmanship and quality and from the skillful combination of different materials.

The store employs sustainable local marble and stone, such as green serpentine marble. LED walls play a key role, alternating with more traditional elements, creating a dynamic atmosphere and lending the room a slight extravagance.

The furnishings, which are transparent and light, highlight the products and the flooring, which features a woven motif on the sides, a striking reference to one of the brand’s signature processing techniques. The space is decorated with warm-colored velvet seats resting on silk and wool carpets.

Fratelli Rossetti 
Via Roma, 18 – 50123
fratellirossetti.com

CB Made in Italy

CB Made in Italy, the luxury footwear label led by founder Cecilia Bringheli and Sibilla de Vuono, entrepreneur and creative director, has opened its first store in Florence.

The city has a special meaning for the two women, as the headquarters of the brand stand in Milan while de Vuono’s farm and retreat is located in the Chianti hills in Florence. 

The store is at 38R, Via Santo Spirito in the beating heart of Florence’s trendiest neighborhood, which is always vibrant and which is filled with art studios, antique stores, artisans and craftsmen. 

It covers 432 square feet and is tinged with natural colors, reflecting the brand’s image and its core values: love for natural and organic materials, texture, Italian design and history. Inside the space, featuring an original Florentine vaulted ceiling and a charming soft light, CB’s handcrafted shoes and accessories are displayed on Travertino shelves, while a teal blue velvet sofa designed by Tobia Scarpa welcomes guests.

During Pitti Uomo, CB Made in Italy and Vibram, the premium outsole and performance footwear brand, will present a collaboration aimed to project sustainability, kindness, consciousness, transformation, reuse and playfulness. With the partnership, the brand is putting a new spin on its evergreen range of products, going beyond the concept of seasonal collections or trends.

CB Made in Italy 
Via Santo Spirito, 38 R – 50125
cbmadeinitaly.com

Steve McCurry “Children” exhibition

The Museo degli Innocenti is hosting Steve McCurry’s “Children” Exhibition until Oct. 8. Located inside the storied home for abandoned children that works to support the rights of children and adolescents in Italy, the Steve McCurry exhibition is dedicated to childhood. Through 100 photographs, taken across almost 50 years, the photographer portrays children of all ethnic groups, through Burma, Japan, Africa and over to Brazil. Through these portraits the conditions of childhood are told through four main sections: children and armed conflicts; education and schooling; play, and child labor. The exhibition was curated by Biba Giacchetti with Melissa Camilli of the SudEst57 team, with the patronage of the Municipality of Florence.

Museo degli Innocenti
Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, 13 – 50121
museodeglinnocenti.it

“Reaching for the Stars. Da Maurizio Cattelan a Lynette Yiadom-Boakye” exhibition

The exhibition celebrates some of the greatest Italian and international artists including Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas, among others, with 70 works that are displayed in Palazzo Strozzi. Curated by Arturo Galansino, director general of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, the show is dedicated to the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, one of the most prestigious private collections of contemporary art in Europe, for its 30th anniversary.

Between paintings, sculpture, installations, photography, videos and performance, the exhibition aims to enhance the dialogue between Palazzo Strozzi and contemporary art by offering visitors a journey to discover the works of those who have led the evolution of art since the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. The exhibition addresses different themes such as identity and the body from a social and political point of view or the role and image of women in today’s society.

One of the works presented is the photographic print “Faceless from Women of Allah Series (1994)” by Shirin Neshat, who is among the first female artists from the Islamic world to have established herself internationally. Neshat imposes a reflection on the absence of individual space and freedom of expression that Iranian women face.

Palazzo Strozzi
Piazza degli Strozzi – 50123
palazzostrozzi.org

“The Alchemist of Fashion — Unveiling the Formula of Gianfranco Ferré” exhibition

Istituto Marangoni Firenze, in partnership with WP Archive, is presenting the exhibition during Pitti Immagine Uomo. The inspiration for this presentation came from the analysis of Gianfranco Ferré’s creative process through more than 5,500 books covering art, history, photography, costume and fashion and a collection of Polaroids taken throughout his career by the students in the Masters in Art Management and Curating Art and Fashion degree at Istituto Marangoni Firenze. 

The exhibition features a collection of his iconic garments, vintage clothing and creations worn by celebrities, his men’s and women’s collections and previously unreleased objects from the WP Archive, which in 2014 acquired a portion of Gianfranco Ferrè’s historical archive.

The exhibition showcasing the designer’s artistic production is located in the WP Store in Florence and the rooms of a historic Florentine mansion above it. It’s divided into five thematic areas and begins with a reproduction of Ferré’s studio while others include Nature, which includes botanical elements the Middle Ages, from which the designer took the chain mail to adapt it to the female body; and Voyage, with objects and suggestions from his many travels to the Far East that inspired his love of colors and runway architecture, represented by dynamic mannequins wearing voluminous clothing reminiscent of his background.

WP Store
Via della Vigna Nuova, 75/R – 50123
istitutomarangoni.com