A craft, an hour, a price

Fact sheet

Days

2

City

Florence

Recommended season

February-June and September-November; from 8 January it is workable

Group

8 to 20 participants

Language of the visits

Italian and English

Price

Quotation on request

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Itinerary day by day

Day 1 — Where the value sits, in an object that can be copied

In the morning, Scuola del Cuoio, inside the Santa Croce complex. It is a school and a working workshop at the same time: you walk into the workshop, you see the stages and you ask how much time each of them costs. The guided technical visit lasts an hour and is paid in advance, because the workshop organizes the shift of whoever teaches.

In the afternoon, a two-and-a-half-hour working session. Reconstructing the full cost of a piece seen that morning: raw material, hours, waste, amortization of the space, sales channel. At the end the figure is compared with the actual selling price and the difference is discussed, which is the point of the whole day.

Day 2 — When a company decides to tell its own story

In the morning, Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, in Piazza Santa Trinita. It is the archive of a fashion house inside the palazzo that has housed it since 1938, and it is a member of the Italian association of company archives and museums. You observe how a company decides what it keeps and what it throws away, which is a decision about communication before it is one about archiving.

In the afternoon, a two-hour working walk through the center: the windows of the historic houses and those of the shops selling similar products at a tenth of the price, on the same street. You take notes on who is talking to whom.

Closing session, an hour and a half. Each team writes the positioning sheet of a craft brand born today: who it sells to, where, at what price, and what it will never do.

What you visit

What is included and what is not

Included: the guided technical visit to the Scuola del Cuoio, admission and visit to the Ferragamo Museum, the booking and the advance payment the workshop requires, four hours of guided working sessions, the materials, one person from the Istituto with the group and the certificate of participation in the experience.

Not included: flight, transfers, lodging, meals, urban transport, personal travel insurance.

The season, and why

Florence works from February to June and from September to November. From 8 January it is workable, and it is also the moment with the fewest tourists and the shortest queues; not before the 8th, because the workshops reopen after 6 January.

August is avoided: Florentine leather goods close for the holidays, and visiting a district at a standstill tells half the story.

The month we recommend is March or April, when the workshops work at full pace for the spring deliveries and you see the craft, not a demonstration of the craft.

Logistics and capacity

The whole route is in the center of Florence and is done on foot. The Scuola del Cuoio takes up to 20 people; above that the group enters in waves and the visit stretches by about 45 minutes, without the cost per person going down. Payment for the visit is in advance, so the exact number of participants is confirmed before traveling and not on the day.

The recommended group is 15 people: it is the size that reaches the group rates without going over the access limits.

Cover

The program includes an accident and public liability policy for the whole stay. The sums insured, the insurer and the policy number are published once it is taken out and are attached to the contract; until then they can be requested in writing, with an answer within two working days.

Do you want it to count as training, with a certificate? → For groups

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