Santa Croce Basilica is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture with a façade clad in polychrome marble. This is the ancient church in which the Franciscan friars chose to set up and begin treating pelts and leather and meditate in peace in a place that was, at that time, located outside the city walls. We will admire, from close up, the beautiful frescoes by Giotto and Agnolo Gaddi, the “Crucifix” and “Annunciation” by Donatello and the world-famous funerary monuments and tombs of illustrious figures from the past such as Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli. Next, we will enter the elegant “Brunelleschi Cloister” bordered by columns carved from pure stone, and then pass into the fourteenth-century “Ancient Cloister” at the end of which lies the beautiful “Pazzi Chapel”, a sublime example of Renaissance harmony, also the work of Brunelleschi.

After visiting the Basilica and cloisters, there will be a chance to visit a workshop that goes back to the 13th century, when the Franciscan monks first settled in this area on the banks of the river Arno. The earliest hide and leather working activity was established here, where the large quantities of water required for leather processing are freely available. The Franciscan monks of the Santa Croce monastery dedicated their efforts to this activity, and their leather-working techniques have been preserved over the centuries by the master craftsmen who still work in the delightful old workshops at the School of Leather (except on Saturday and Sunday), which you will be visiting; an extraordinary Renaissance workshop adjacent to the Basilica, where history, tradition and exceptional quality are combined to produce authentic Florentine craftwork. A real "top must see” amazing place.