Who still lives here

As long as the doors stand open, this street smells of wood glue, turpentine and sawdust. Look between those same doors, though, and you'll start to notice key safes and new intercom panels, because these workshops have become sought-after homes.

A workshop earns far less per square metre than an apartment, so when a craftsman retires with no one to take over, the space usually vanishes. That's why the city keeps a register of historic workshops, and why apprentices arrive from Japan, Brazil and the United States, some of whom stick around and open places of their own, exactly the way it worked back in the fifteenth century.

Our walk winds down here, and we're glad you got to see this side of the river. If you want to keep going, we have a route past the city's great landmarks and another about the Medici, the family that shaped Florence for centuries. The Ponte Vecchio sits five minutes away, at the far end of this street.