The second day of our Apritimoda 2018 experience in Firenze we decided to take advantage of the fact that it was not necessary to make an appointment to visit the Antico Setificio Florentino and the factory of the brocades and handmade silks of Stefano Ricci, which are in the same building a bit far from the center from the city, on the other bank of the river.
Inevitably, I have to start with the less positive aspects of our visit and it is that, because it is an extremely rare place and that it is not normally open to the public (it is not a mandatory stop for curious people nor tourists here in Florence), we found a lot of people in the first turn of the visit. This was not what bothered me in our visit to the Antico Setificio Florentino, but the fact that they made us sign a type of authorization with our data - that I must confess I did not read- quickly and in an absolute rush before entering, due to "image rights and possible damage to the machinery". I do not like to sign things that I have not read previously. As you will understand, in this situation, with almost 50 impatient and nervous people waiting to enter behind us and a waiting time for the visit that had already lengthened more than expected, for a visit that did not require a previous reservation (as it was actually required in other visits to which we did not go, as for example the atelier of Ermano Scervino) was something very uncomfortable and inconvenient. There were people who did not want to sign and they went where they came from after a few tense moments.
But, in short, and bad things apart. This site surprised me a lot because it reminded me of the traditional silk industry that is being carefully and little by little recovered, with places such as the Museum of the Greater Art of Silk in the city of Valencia. With the particularity that this site is a factory + real showroom, where silk fabric is crafted every day (there are also these places in my city, and like this place, they are not very known by people who are not very familiar with the world of fallas and traditional design of Valencian clothing) destined to create brocades, brocatelles, wild silks and all kinds of wonderful fabrics that are generally used for interior design (although I could easily make a couple of skirts and dresses with many of the fabrics that I saw there). I enjoyed it and appreciated the live demonstrations of weaving.
After our visit, we returned to the chaos that is felt on any Sunday in the city center of Florence, where, in the Piazza della Signoria, is the Gucci Museum, also known as "Gucci Garden". Gucci Garden is a museum, café-restaurant and the Gucci flagship store here in Firenze. A place where all the philosophy of the brand and its current designer, Alessandro Michele meet and interact with the public to show the history of this Italian maison.
I have to say that from this site, I loved its interior design, the museography (which is very well planned and executed. The lighting is impeccable from the architectural point of view, and the wallpaper and fabric coverings of the walls of some rooms, they are so divine that you want to die right there) and how, even being poor and unable to afford to buy a sweatshirt for 1,300 euros in their gift-flagship-store, you can feel like you belong for a tiny moment to that universe full of light, color and flowers. However, I am not sure if I would pay the entrance for entering any other day. I liked it as a concept, I liked how it was planned and I liked the things that I saw (although, I had the sensation during the brief tour of the museum that everything was a great ode to the current designer, and I found a great lack of pieces from other eras that showed more of the history of the brand). I liked it, but I do not know if I would pay the 8 euros that the entrance costs, and that we didn't pay thanks to the Apritimoda event.
Without a doubt, it all was a different experience that not all Erasmus students can live in their destination cities for their year studying away from home, and for that, I felt very fortunate.
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