Alright gentlemen, sorry this has taken me so long to post. We got back from Italy to find my practice more or less on fire, with trips to NYC and LA since our return. But I wanted to share this experience with all of you and suggest in strongest terms that if you ever find yourself in Florence, you want to be sure to visit Castellana Pipe Shop.
Castellana
The shop is about a block away from the famous Duomo – and the surrounding area is filled with cafes, restaurants and other nifty shops – so you’ll want to visit the are anyway. (We stayed at the Logiatto dei Servitti, which is just down the street and around the corner from the Academia, which houses the David. I cannot say enough about this wonderful, historic hotel and the service there.)
HOTEL
Your first impression of Giovanni’s shop is likely to be underwhelming. Like many Italian tobacco shops, cigarettes, cigars and odds and ends seem to predominate. There might be two or three trays of pipes out on display. But once Giovanni knows you are a pipe guy, he starts disappearing back into the bowels of the shop and emerging time and again with tray after tray of simply beautiful stock. He is extremely knowledgeable and will work with you to find what you want at a price you you want to pay. (It would be VERY easy to come away much poorer than when you entered.)
Giovanni has access to some very special stock and he showed me some Castello pipes I’d never seen before. But when I told him I wanted something very special and very Italian, his face lit up and he went back into the dark again, re-appearing with a tray of Rinaldo Brothers pipes.
Rinaldo Pipes
I hadn’t heard of this mark, but Giovanni educated me about the two brothers and their work. Rather than buy yet another bent bulldog or other traditional pipe (What can I say? I’m old fashioned.) I decided to buy what was, for me at least, something very unusual. The Rinaldo pictured below is about a Group 4 size and a total break with my usual pipe buying habits. I managed to get back from overseas with a vile head cold. (Thanks guy on the train from Naples to Rome who coughed the whole damned way and never covered his mouth.) So it was two weeks before I was ready to break this pipe in. All I can say is “wow.” Besides being lovely, and a treasured reminder of a great trip, this may be the best smoking pipe out of the box that I’ve ever had.
The real highlight though? Giovanni himself. Turned out we had an acquaintance in common – another pipe-smoking Miami lawyer – and between that, the story of the shop, interjections from the steady stream of locals who stopped in and Giovanni’s friendly charm, my visit to the shop lasted nearly an hour.
If you find yourself in Florence, be sure to stop in. You won’t leave empty handed or unhappy.
Castellana
The shop is about a block away from the famous Duomo – and the surrounding area is filled with cafes, restaurants and other nifty shops – so you’ll want to visit the are anyway. (We stayed at the Logiatto dei Servitti, which is just down the street and around the corner from the Academia, which houses the David. I cannot say enough about this wonderful, historic hotel and the service there.)
HOTEL
Your first impression of Giovanni’s shop is likely to be underwhelming. Like many Italian tobacco shops, cigarettes, cigars and odds and ends seem to predominate. There might be two or three trays of pipes out on display. But once Giovanni knows you are a pipe guy, he starts disappearing back into the bowels of the shop and emerging time and again with tray after tray of simply beautiful stock. He is extremely knowledgeable and will work with you to find what you want at a price you you want to pay. (It would be VERY easy to come away much poorer than when you entered.)
Giovanni has access to some very special stock and he showed me some Castello pipes I’d never seen before. But when I told him I wanted something very special and very Italian, his face lit up and he went back into the dark again, re-appearing with a tray of Rinaldo Brothers pipes.
Rinaldo Pipes
I hadn’t heard of this mark, but Giovanni educated me about the two brothers and their work. Rather than buy yet another bent bulldog or other traditional pipe (What can I say? I’m old fashioned.) I decided to buy what was, for me at least, something very unusual. The Rinaldo pictured below is about a Group 4 size and a total break with my usual pipe buying habits. I managed to get back from overseas with a vile head cold. (Thanks guy on the train from Naples to Rome who coughed the whole damned way and never covered his mouth.) So it was two weeks before I was ready to break this pipe in. All I can say is “wow.” Besides being lovely, and a treasured reminder of a great trip, this may be the best smoking pipe out of the box that I’ve ever had.
The real highlight though? Giovanni himself. Turned out we had an acquaintance in common – another pipe-smoking Miami lawyer – and between that, the story of the shop, interjections from the steady stream of locals who stopped in and Giovanni’s friendly charm, my visit to the shop lasted nearly an hour.
If you find yourself in Florence, be sure to stop in. You won’t leave empty handed or unhappy.
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