E) costume jewelry and custom-made footwear Fashion and culture itinerary in Florence

Beads: ancient ornamental elements for decorating the body. Beads: trinkets and artistic expression. For Ornella Aprosio, these considerations sparked the idea for her workshop, where she researches and works with crystal and glass beads for imaginative jewelry made entirely by hand and in limited series. The luminous annual collections of fashion accessories designed by Aprosio are presented each year in at previous showings in Paris.
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Just a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio, on the left bank of the Arno is Santa Felicita. The church was built during the Romanesque period over an early Christian (V century) cemeterial basilica (a few fragments of epigraphs from the original building are visible on the side of the church). Vasari’s Corridor (the elevated passageway connecting Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti) runs above a section of the portico. The corridor is clearly visible from the inside, along with coretto – the private tribune with a grate - from which the Medici family could attend services without being disturbed, or observed. The interior, that was decorated in the eighteen century, conserves an extraordinary masterpiece of Florentine Mannerism in the first chapel on the right: the Deposition by Pontormo. The altarpiece that was painted in total isolation around 1525 is filled with unforgettable figures, that seem to be blown from glass, suspended in a painful, metaphysical silence pervaded by a timeless light. The frescoed Annunciation is also by Pontormo.
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It was in his native Sicily that Calogero Mannina was introduced to the shoemaking trade – and a passion for the item – by his grandfather. Calogero is one of those artisans who never abandon their calling nor betray their trade. On the contrary, he transmitted his knowledge and love to his son Antonio who is in charge of the store on Via Guicciardini that displays the men's and women's shoes made in "Calogero's kingdom", the workshop just around the corner on Via de' Barbadori. Oxfords, moccasins, and ankle boots all made of fine leathers, (vegetable-tanned suedes, French calfskin, vacchetta, as well as crocodile, ostrich and lizard) that are finished with a mixture of aniline, alcohol and vegetable waxes, are just some of the more classic models the shop features.
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