Wistful though I was to leave Venice, we were excited to head to Florence on one of Italy’s efficient and smooth high-speed trains. The magnificence of the art in this city has been so exalted that it took some psychological preparation for me to see it myself.

Our first experience upon getting out of the train station was dragging our suitcases along very narrow sidewalks through very dense crowds, occasionally zigging off onto the road and zagging back on when a car came along. The good and bad thing was that we were staying right by the Duomo, one of the top tourist attractions in Florence.

Despite having a wonderfully close view of it right outside our window, we hadn’t booked tickets far enough in advance to go up inside the dome during our stay. We did, however, get to visit the cathedral of Santa Maria di Fiore, entering through the crypt of Santa Reparata (which had shorter lines than the main entrance), and the baptistery of San Giovanni (open during renovations).

Another important part of this complex is the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Opera Duomo Museum), which houses many significant sculptures, including Michelangelo’s unfinished Pietà.

A first visit to Florence wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Santa Maria Novella—both the basilica and the perfumery. The grounds of the church are spacious and the interior is home to several chapels, each decorated with wall and ceiling frescoes, dizzying in detail at every turn.

The perfumery was a bit harder to find, and I finally approached a couple of other tourists proudly posing for photos with their shopping bag from Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella to ask for directions. “Excuse me,” I said. Sensing they might not speak English, I pointed to the bag and began, “Profumo?” Shaking his head, the man replied with a big smile, “Toothpaste.” (I didn’t actually understand him even then, but luckily my other half did and saved me from more embarrassment.) Realizing I had overcomplicated a simple task, I started gesturing around and asked, “Where is the store?” Turns out that was the sensible question, as they pointed us the right way.

The entrance set the tone for grandness, as the foyer was decked in arches of flowers, a hallway of refuge before stepping into the museum and apothecary… it was easy almost to forget that it’s a shop.

Rooms lead into each other, and from an inner chamber featuring shower gels and lotions, one could enter an immersive experience titled Blooming in Paradise. This multisensory installation by artist Felice Limosani consisted of a large room pleasantly scented and soundtracked to projections of constantly shifting and blooming flowers on all walls, reflected in the mirrors on protruding columns. I will admit that I don’t remember what it smelled or sounded like because I was too busy trying to get a photo with a digital bouquet that was eluding me by the second, and as the room was relatively dark, none of the attempts came out well. It was a hypnotic environment, though, especially when we briefly had the space to ourselves.

I had anticipated that I might revisit and purchase Tabacco Toscano eau de cologne here, as I had smelled and liked it several years ago. However, it differed from my vague memory. I was also eager to smell the new eaux de parfum, especially L’Iris, the first ever for the house with over 800 years of history.

The top notes enchanted me with an iris by turns fresh, floral, woody, carroty, and rich. Charmed also by the book-like packaging, I bought a 50-mL bottle… and didn’t even think to ask if they offered samples with a purchase.

In the old apothecary section, more surprises could be found, including the aforementioned toothpaste—iris flavored, no less! They let people try a dab on a wooden stick, and unfortunately, having grown up on mint-flavored toothpaste, the iris just didn’t work for me. It didn’t taste like the scent I’m used to from perfumes, either.

Instead, I picked up a small bottle of rose liqueur… and as of this writing, there’s about one beverage’s worth of it remaining!

When we’d had our fill of “the nicest perfumery I’ve been to,” as my other half put it, we came out to witness that a long line had formed outside the door!

Another perfumery I sought out, purely based on a recommendation in an article by The Perfume Society, was Olfattorio Bar à Parfums. It’s also a bit hidden inside a Renaissance-style building. I didn’t really know what to expect, but was surprised to discover that most of their curated selection of brands were French. They also don’t carry discovery sets in store, selling them only online as the point of discovery sets is to try perfumes at home.

Fragrant mission accomplished, we headed back in the direction of our hotel to honor our timed ticket to Giotto’s Campanile (bell tower). The time spent queuing helped to build up my already looming sense of dread at having to climb up 414 steps to the top—not so much the daunting number as the narrow, spiraling, two-way nature of them. Sure enough, I was not in shape for it and by the time I reached the halfway point, I wasn’t feeling so well. Still, I pushed on (yes, should I mention crowds again?—against the steady stream of bodies walking down the wider portion of the stairs) and made it to the summit.

All that physical exertion left us quite hungry, and we found a restaurant where passersby could watch fresh pasta being made through the window. We also finally saw an example of the infamous “wine window,” at which you could ring a bell and be served a glass of wine. First used in the 1600s and having facilitated social distancing during the plague, some specimens that survived were revived during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The next day, we took a guided tour of Tuscany, which included Siena and San Gimignano as well as lunch and Chianti wine tasting at Il Colombaio winery. The serene landscape of Tuscany speaks for itself, and I can say that perfumery thrives even in these old towns where medieval buildings still stand.

A note on shopping for leather goods in Florence, the leather capital—shops are everywhere around the city and the San Lorenzo market has a vast array, but our tour guide recommended looking in the Santa Croce area. We went on our last day and although I did not end up buying anything, the shops in that area generally did seem to offer quality items at reasonable prices.

I can imagine that if I magically found myself alone in a ghost-town version of Florence, amidst the architecture and the art, I might have a chance at experiencing the mysterious Stendhal syndrome (a phenomenon by which the extreme beauty of art induces a psychosomatic bout of autonomic dysfunction manifesting as dizziness, rapid heartbeat, and fainting). As it were, mired in the reality of the tourist high season, this was entirely impossible. However, one need only tilt one’s camera upward to capture the awe-inspiring parts and pretend the thousands of heads just past the bottom edge of the photo aren’t there.