IL BISONTE’S
PLACES
The Topography of Savoir-faire
This issue of the Magazine is an invitation to travel. To move slowly along ancient paths and to view them with new eyes. To travel different roads and discover places forgotten by the Grand Tour maps and which, precisely for this reason, have been able to maintain an authenticity that has been lost elsewhere.
Il Bisonte’s places are the villages, towns and valleys where a production chain made up of small artisan workshops stretches out, where for more than fifty years, leather goods have been a family affair, handed down from one generation to the next along with the secrets of the trade.
This little piece of Florence province has a map drawn by special places that safeguard the memory of millennia-old manufacturing traditions and transform that memory, daily, into a living practice which continues to amaze with its quality and capacity for innovation. This is where artisans like Stefano, the only one who still knows the secrets of Florentine cuoietto leather work; Piero, who cuts and carves wood from his forests to construct the frames for molding the bags; Maria, who knows how to sew leather the way her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother did and who is teaching the craft to her children; Raffaella, who dyes the edges of wallets with the confidence and skill of a seasoned painter; and Marco, who melts brass and transforms it into metal accessories. If these places are special, it is explicitly because they possess an inestimable wealth of talent and passion for know-how and doing things well, just as the regulations of the Arts and Crafts Guild required here during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Traveling around Il Bisonte’s places allows you to immerse yourself in both gorgeous landscapes that have given birth and inspiration to the world’s greatest artists, and the little villages designed by the best Medieval and Renaissance architects. It allows your gaze to sweep over lands designed by the wisdom of farmers, lands that have grown vines and olive trees since Etruscan times. It invites you to witness wonderful stories and taste new flavors. And it lets you discover corners of the world that give shape and substance to the “made in Tuscany” label, and makes you realize its full value at last.
30 KM OF MARVELS
Places Matter
The Latins called it genius loci, and two thousand years later that “spirit of place” continues to be the alchemical symbol that makes a place unique and unparalleled. What defines it is not so much the contours of the landscape, though beautiful, as the intangible, yet unmistakable energy that inhabits that corner and only that corner of our planet.
The genius behind Il Bisonte comes from Tuscany and the know-how of its people. That’s why our bags and accessories are designed and produced here and could not be made anywhere else. Here is where the water used to tan the leather is and the air that dries it, here is where the skilled hands fashion creations designed with the architecture and countryside in mind that centuries of mankind have shaped in totally unique ways.
The 30KM of marvels that Il Bisonte’s artisan supply chain covers is the indispensable constant in our history and production philosophy. It was like this in the early 1970s and is so now because we have never stopped investing in our area’s economy and cultivating the dream of preserving and handing down the skills of our artisans. We entrust each of them with the work they excel at because it is thanks to their extraordinary level of specialization that each of our products turns into a small masterpiece.
Luigi Ceccon
CEO of Il Bisonte S.p.A.
A different story
The Economy of Proximity
Among the many advantages of short supply chains, there is one that is particularly close to our hearts at Il Bisonte: proximity is sustainable.
It is sustainable in environmental terms because the impact of the movement of raw materials and people is reduced to almost zero.
It is sustainable also in commercial terms because only the small local laboratories have the necessary flexibility to produce only what is really needed and avoid the risks of over-production.
And it is sustainable in social terms.
The geographic proximity that binds us to our supply chain is also and above all a social proximity, made up of solid relationships of trust, shared skills and values, in-person meetings, business plans updated in solidarity, and the desire to be – all together – world ambassadors for Tuscany’s best savoir-faire.
All of our 50 years of history have been lived here and this way.
If a bag, a wallet, a briefcase or a backpack bears our brand, you can be sure that – no matter what the year – it was designed and created entirely within that bizarre circle you’ll find yourself roaming around if you decide to follow our travel advice
30 KM of Marvels
Places Matter
The Latins called it genius loci, and two thousand years later that “spirit of place” continues to be the alchemical symbol that makes a place unique and unparalleled. What defines it is not so much the contours of the landscape, though beautiful, as the intangible, yet unmistakable energy that inhabits that corner and only that corner of our planet.
The genius behind Il Bisonte comes from Tuscany and the know-how of its people. That’s why our bags and accessories are designed and produced here and could not be made anywhere else. Here is where the water used to tan the leather is and the air that dries it, here is where the skilled hands fashion creations designed with the architecture and countryside in mind that centuries of mankind have shaped in totally unique ways.
The 30KM of marvels that Il Bisonte’s artisan supply chain covers is the indispensable constant in our history and production philosophy. It was like this in the early 1970s and is so now because we have never stopped investing in our area’s economy and cultivating the dream of preserving and handing down the skills of our artisans. We entrust each of them with the work they excel at because it is thanks to their extraordinary level of specialization that each of our products turns into a small masterpiece.
Luigi Ceccon
Chief Executive Officer of Il Bisonte S.p.A.
The Topography of Savoir-faire
This issue of the Magazine is an invitation to travel. To move slowly along ancient paths and to view them with new eyes. To travel different roads and discover places forgotten by the Grand Tour maps and which, precisely for this reason, have been able to maintain an authenticity that has been lost elsewhere.
Il Bisonte’s places are the villages, towns and valleys where a production chain made up of small artisan workshops stretches out, where for more than fifty years, leather goods have been a family affair, handed down from one generation to the next along with the secrets of the trade.
This little piece of Florence province has a map drawn by special places that safeguard the memory of millennia-old manufacturing traditions and transform that memory, daily, into a living practice which continues to amaze with its quality and capacity for innovation. This is where artisans like Stefano, the only one who still knows the secrets of Florentine cuoietto leather work; Piero, who cuts and carves wood from his forests to construct the frames for molding the bags; Maria, who knows how to sew leather the way her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother did and who is teaching the craft to her children; Raffaella, who dyes the edges of wallets with the confidence and skill of a seasoned painter; and Marco, who melts brass and transforms it into metal accessories. If these places are special, it is explicitly because they possess an inestimable wealth of talent and passion for know-how and doing things well, just as the regulations of the Arts and Crafts Guild required here during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Traveling around Il Bisonte’s places allows you to immerse yourself in both gorgeous landscapes that have given birth and inspiration to the world’s greatest artists, and the little villages designed by the best Medieval and Renaissance architects. It allows your gaze to sweep over lands designed by the wisdom of farmers, lands that have grown vines and olive trees since Etruscan times. It invites you to witness wonderful stories and taste new flavors. And it lets you discover corners of the world that give shape and substance to the “made in Tuscany” label, and makes you realize its full value at last.
A different story
The Economy of Proximity
Among the many advantages of short supply chains, there is one that is particularly close to our hearts at Il Bisonte: proximity is sustainable.
It is sustainable in environmental terms because the impact of the movement of raw materials and people is reduced to almost zero.
It is sustainable also in commercial terms because only the small local laboratories have the necessary flexibility to produce only what is really needed and avoid the risks of over-production.
And it is sustainable in social terms.
The geographic proximity that binds us to our supply chain is also and above all a social proximity, made up of solid relationships of trust, shared skills and values, in-person meetings, business plans updated in solidarity, and the desire to be – all together – world ambassadors for Tuscany’s best savoir-faire.
All of our 50 years of history have been lived here and this way.
If a bag, a wallet, a briefcase or a backpack bears our brand, you can be sure that – no matter what the year – it was designed and created entirely within that bizarre circle you’ll find yourself roaming around if you decide to follow our travel advice.
0 Km
The town, located 13 km from Florence, is named after the bridge commissioned in 1555 by Cosimo I de’ Medici from the great architect Bartolomeo Ammannati to unite his city with the territories of Valdarno and Val di Sieve, which have always offered a wealth of irreplaceable manufacturing skills. Its ancient village still preserves three gates from the 14th-century castle as well as a section of the medieval walls. Situated in the center of a hilly area equally rich in castles as artisan workshops, Pontassieve is the center of Il Bisonte’s production universe.
It is home to the creative center, the model-making studio, the historical archives, sample production, the workshop for restoring used bags and accessories, and logistics. The die-cuts used by Il Bisonte for hand-cutting leather are also produced in Pontassieve.
Not to be missed: an afternoon on horseback at the Scuderie di Rosano, soaking up the floral scents from the nearby nursery, and a delicious snack at the Bottega di Rosano.
12 Km
In this enchanted terrain, whose vines have been cultivated since as early as the 9th century B.C., a wine is produced that shares many of the same attributes of Il Bisonte bags: it improves over time, changing its color from ruby to garnet, and softens in taste. Rufina is home to the eponymous Chianti DOCG (the first Chianti sold overseas in the late 19th century) and Pomino DOC, produced by illustrious Florentine families following ancient traditions.
In Rufina Il Bisonte produces bags.
Not to be missed: the Medici villa of Poggioreale, which houses the “Museum of Vine and Wine”; a half-day trip along the “Wine Road,” to understand how the evocative geometry of vineyards has shaped the landscape, making it unique; and a few kilometers beyond the town, take in a wine tasting and stay the night at the splendid Fattoria di Frascole.
12 Km
In this enchanted terrain, whose vines have been cultivated since as early as the 9th century B.C., a wine is produced that shares many of the same attributes of Il Bisonte bags: it improves over time, changing its color from ruby to garnet, and softens in taste. Rufina is home to the eponymous Chianti DOCG (the first Chianti sold overseas in the late 19th century) and Pomino DOC, produced by illustrious Florentine families following ancient traditions.
In Rufina Il Bisonte produces bags.
Not to be missed: the Medici villa of Poggioreale, which houses the “Museum of Vine and Wine”; a half-day trip along the “Wine Road,” to understand how the evocative geometry of vineyards has shaped the landscape, making it unique; and a few kilometers beyond the town, take in a wine tasting and stay the night at the splendid Fattoria di Frascole.
20 Km
In the Reggello area, history and nature coexist in a perfect balance for the traveler who loves to move slowly, discovering treasures hidden from most. The small historic center founded in the 10th century holds some of the most precious treasures of Renaissance art. The immediate surroundings exhibit a succession of Romanesque parish churches, towers, castles and gentle terraced hills planted with olive trees, which – just a few kilometers away – turn into amazing canyons and immense forests, home to a priceless heritage of biodiversity.
In Reggello and nearby Figline, Il Bisonte produces bags.
Not to be missed: a walk at the foot of the Balze to admire a geological phenomenon that is as fascinating as it is surreal; the parish church in Cascia featuring the works of Masaccio; a visit to the experimental arboretums in the Vallombrosa woods; stock up on superb oil at the Santa Tea Frantoio (Oil Mill), active since 1500.
27 Km
A true gem set in the Mugello valley (known as the “garden of Italy”), Vicchio is home to two of the fathers of Italian art history. Giotto’s birthplace (now a museum) is on the hill in Vespignano, where the great painter was born to a peasant family; not far away is the bridge under which Cimabue is said to have discovered his talent while intent on depicting a sheep. Vicchio was also the birthplace of Fra Angelico, the only artist in history to be proclaimed a saint because of the sublime and almost supernatural beauty of his paintings.
In Vicchio Il Bisonte produces bags.
Not to be missed: the Sentiero dei Pittori (Painters’ Trail), which wends through beautiful countryside and delightful villages, allowing you to retrace one of the most important chapters in the history of world art; lunch at the Casa del Prosciutto to delight in its delicious potato tortelli.
27 Km
A true gem set in the Mugello valley (known as the “garden of Italy”), Vicchio is home to two of the fathers of Italian art history. Giotto’s birthplace (now a museum) is on the hill in Vespignano, where the great painter was born to a peasant family; not far away is the bridge under which Cimabue is said to have discovered his talent while intent on depicting a sheep. Vicchio was also the birthplace of Fra Angelico, the only artist in history to be proclaimed a saint because of the sublime and almost supernatural beauty of his paintings.
In Vicchio Il Bisonte produces bags.
Not to be missed: the Sentiero dei Pittori (Painters’ Trail), which wends through beautiful countryside and delightful villages, allowing you to retrace one of the most important chapters in the history of world art; lunch at the Casa del Prosciutto to delight in its delicious potato tortelli.
28 Km
Embraced by the beautiful Chianti countryside, the small village of Impruneta has always been the town of the terracotta, which has been produced here since the Middle Ages. Even Filippo Brunelleschi used terracotta bricks from the Impruneta kilns to build the magnificent Dome of the Florence Cathedral. The ancient art of terracotta – still alive today – passed on and handed down by real dynasties of kiln workers, is a fundamental element of the place’s identity. Bricks, pottery and statues peep out from the farmyards, roofs and walls of the stately villas and farmhouses that grace the hills, the same hills that are rich in the high-quality clay, and the wood that has provided fuel for the kilns for centuries.
In Impruneta Il Bisonte produces small leather goods.
Not to be missed: a walking tour of the Quartiere delle Fornaci (departing from the central Piazza Buondelmonti) on traditional clay working, and a driving tour of the quarries.
30 Km
Since its Roman founding, Borgo San Lorenzo, located in the middle of Lorenzo the Magnificent’s land, has been a lively crossroads of goods, knowledge and flavors situated in the midst of gorgeous countryside dotted with ancient parish churches and magnificent villas. The town, which as early as the Renaissance was renowned for leatherworking and shoe-making, has always had a special vocation for artistic craftsmanship, a tradition which even endured throughout 19th-century industrialization: it was here, in the early 1900s, that Galileo and Chino Chini opened a factory destined to write one of the finest chapters in the history of world Art Nouveau.
In Borgo San Lorenzo Il Bisonte produces wallets and small leather accessories.
Not to be missed: the ceramic, stoneware and glass masterpieces in the Museo della Manifattura Chini, at Villa Pecori Giraldi, with their geometric and floral decorations; the Romanesque parish church of San Lorenzo, featuring a work by Giotto; and a walk through the Passo della Colla woods to the Abbraccio waterfall.
30 Km
Since its Roman founding, Borgo San Lorenzo, located in the middle of Lorenzo the Magnificent’s land, has been a lively crossroads of goods, knowledge and flavors situated in the midst of gorgeous countryside dotted with ancient parish churches and magnificent villas. The town, which as early as the Renaissance was renowned for leatherworking and shoe-making, has always had a special vocation for artistic craftsmanship, a tradition which even endured throughout 19th-century industrialization: it was here, in the early 1900s, that Galileo and Chino Chini opened a factory destined to write one of the finest chapters in the history of world Art Nouveau.
In Borgo San Lorenzo Il Bisonte produces wallets and small leather accessories.
Not to be missed: the ceramic, stoneware and glass masterpieces in the Museo della Manifattura Chini, at Villa Pecori Giraldi, with their geometric and floral decorations; the Romanesque parish church of San Lorenzo, featuring a work by Giotto; and a walk through the Passo della Colla woods to the Abbraccio waterfall.
Unexpected treasures
Bellini, Bigallo, Galileo, Marini, Novecento: the names of the bags and accessories from the SS24 collection that accompanied us on our trip to visit Il Bisonte’s places honor the city’s so-called “minor museums,” so often overlooked by the hordes of tourists, but incredibly valuable to those who want to discover a different Florence and a thousand unexpected treasures.
Not to be missed: the noble, refined antiques in the private collection of the Museo Bellini; the precious 14th-century works of the Museo del Bigallo; the incredible collection of scientific instruments collected by the Medici family, housed in Museo Galileo; the monumental equestrian sculptures in the ancient church of San Pancrazio, now home to the Museo Marino Marini; and the portraits and landscapes of Ottone Rosai at the Museo del Novecento.
In the heart of Florence, always
This issue of the magazine was written at Il Bisonte’s headquarters on the second floor of the 17th-century Palazzo Corsini at Via del Parione, the most opulent of the city’s private buildings. Popes, heads of state, men of culture and science have lived and stayed in its rooms over the centuries.
From its windows overlooking the Ponte Vecchio all the splendor of the city can be absorbed with a single glance. Here, just a stone’s throw from the artisan workshop where our first creations were imagined and produced in 1970, Il Bisonte’s executive offices, showroom and first shop are still located.
Not to be missed: a visit to the Il Bisonte flagship store following a stroll in the Boboli Gardens and a coffee at the Todo Modo bookshop in nearby Via dei Fossi.
In the heart of Florence, always
This issue of the magazine was written at Il Bisonte’s headquarters on the second floor of the 17th-century Palazzo Corsini at Via del Parione, the most opulent of the city’s private buildings. Popes, heads of state, men of culture and science have lived and stayed in its rooms over the centuries.
From its windows overlooking the Ponte Vecchio all the splendor of the city can be absorbed with a single glance. Here, just a stone’s throw from the artisan workshop where our first creations were imagined and produced in 1970, Il Bisonte’s executive offices, showroom and first shop are still located.
Not to be missed: a visit to the Il Bisonte flagship store following a stroll in the Boboli Gardens and a coffee at the Todo Modo bookshop in nearby Via dei Fossi.