Bookstores

In previous winters, when we spent time in Victoria B.C. I went on about how numerous the bookstores were in Victoria. Well, I had not seen Florence yet. Florence has not only numerous bookstores but particularly good ones as well as specialized stores. The most prominent is Feltrinelli, which is also a publisher. At its main location are three floors of very diverse, interesting and beautiful books. There are two other large locations (one in the train station).

Seeber is also a multi-floor book store. Like Feltrinelli it has an English language section as well as a small section of second-hand books.

A third large bookstore we have not visited is Libraria Gioberti (it has five of these bays, using most of the ground floor of the building.

Here is a fourth large book store on the other side of the river (this is near the Pitti Palace and the foot traffic is always very heavy, so heavy that on weekends cars cannot use this street!)

As I said there are specialized bookstores. One that sells only English books and another that sells only French books. Both have an excellent selections.

There are dealers in rare books (I only include two Gozinni and below Connelli, but there are several others).

There are many good smaller new book stores, here are four examples.

Of course there are many stores selling used and antiquarian books. Again, here is only a sampling.
The first one is in a former butcher shop.

I end not with a bookstore, but with a beautiful 18th century public library on via Cavour with a close-up of some books. A antique sign in the reading room says "Please refrain from spitting on the floor".

As you can see, Florentines read!