1. November 2026
Home » Travel » Travel Reviews » Museums & Exhibitions » Ferragamo Museum Florence
Museums & Exhibitions

Ferragamo Museum Florence

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Ferragamo Museum

10 EUR
Ferragamo Museum
4.6

Rating

 4.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very good overview of Salvatore Ferragamo's life and work
  • Very nice presentation
  • Many shoes and original items

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Rather small place

Florence is known as a beautiful city with a picturesque old town. However, like many places in Italy, it is also a place for fashion. One name which is closely linked to the city in Tuscany is Salvatore Ferragamo, who is especially known for be being a visionary and icon for shoes. He died in the city on 7th August 1960. His company still runs a large store in the heart of the city, together with a place praising him. Here is my review of the Ferragamo Museum.

 

Ferragamo Museum – Location & Admission

The Ferragamo Museum located in the corresponding store is located at Piazza Santa Trinita right in the heart of the old town. The building is a former palace, Palazzo Spini Feroni, dated as of the 13th century. You should walk there, public transport is limited. Buses 6, 11, and 18 stop at Vigna Nuova. Another good point to walk to the museum from is the main station.

The museum is opening daily from 10:30 to 19:30. Times may shift according to the season, though. Admission is 10 Euro.

 

Ferragamo Museum – The Visit

The museum is located in the basement of the store. All key texts are in English and Italian, so that the place is also easy to visit for foreigners. There is a suggested route, but apart from some introductory topics right at the beginning, you might also alter that, based on your preferences. You initially learn about Ferragamo’s first steps, including his first step as a son of a rather poor family in Bonito Northeast of Naples. At the age of nine, he created his first high heels, worn by his sisters for their confirmation. There are a lot of pictures and documents, also about when he moved to Boston at young age to work in a show factory and then relocated to California.

A key boost to Ferragamo’s success was when he started to create made-to-measure shoes, which became very popular in the Hollywood movie industry of the 1920’s. The museum illustrates that era with a lot of pictures. My favorite, though, was to watch all the original cobbler’s lasts (the wooden thing used to model the tailored shoes). The museum has a huge collection of them, all marked with the names of the corresponding actors and celebrities. You rarely miss a big name of the Hollywood industry of that time. Of course, the key exhibits are shoes. I read that the museum is having several thousands of them. Salvatore Ferragamo had studied anatomy in the United States to increase the comfort of his shoes. One of the larger rooms is dedicated to footwear and the celebrities who wore them, which is also very impressing.

 

Ferragamo Museum – Services

The staff was very friendly. The real deal souvenir from the museum would likely be a pair of high heels from the store above – but the museum has also some books and other items, which are not that hard to your budget.

 

Ferragamo Museum – My View

Ferragamo Museum in Florence is not huge. Nonetheless, my visit was about 45 to 60 minutes. The key reason for that is that there are so many items and the presentation is really good. You simply get stuck at multiple points, especially when it comes to high heels worn by former movie celebrities. It is a rather unique place (I could at most compare it to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto) which is telling you a fascinating biography and nicely takes you back to times quite long ago.

 

Flyctory.com in Florence

Here are all my posts related to Florence in Italy:

 

Museums (Flyctory Obscura)

Here are reviews of obscure and special Museums & Exhibitions, which I flagged as Flyctory Obscura experiences:

You might also like

Emirates National Auto Museum

American Victory Ship Mariners Memorial Museum

Museum Ferrari Maranello

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *