A Mile in His Shoes

There’s a museum in Florence that tends to get overlooked but is by far the most glamorous and fun one in town. I can’t think of anything better than beautiful shoes. I certainly can’t think of anything better than examining elegant and famous footwear for a few hours. Best of all, there are no large tour groups threatening your life if you even think about moving just one step closer to The Birth of Venus. So drop the other shoe, if you will, and complete your next trip to Florence with a museum that puts fashion and business into perspective.

The Museo Salvatore Ferragamo is the only museum in the world dedicated to one designer and his fabulous shoes. And rightfully so, Salvatore began making shoes at the tender age of nine years old and never stopped. Born in the south of Italy in 1898, Salvatore was one of the designers who would help Italian fashion rise to what it is today. Forget the Uffizi and the Academia; this is my kind of museum.

The museum opened in 1995 to display and commemorate over forty years of Ferragamo shoes. The Museum’s collection is based on over ten thousand shoes, as if that weren’t every girl’s dream, which were all created by Ferragamo. The museum displays worn shoes, donated shoes, new shoes and everything in between. Most crucially, the museum rotates the shoes through and changes the exhibitions at least twice a year, so there is always something new and fun to see in the museum.

I took more photos in that museum then I did the duration of my time in Italy (4 months). I have priorities. Sadly, I found out photography wasn’t allowed after I made it through, so I decided I better not post them. But I found some others. The first is the shoe from the Drew Barrymore Film: Ever after. It's currently on display in the museum.