Scarperia

Scarperia, the most charming town in the Mugello, is perched high above the valley that links up to the mountain pass and main road between Florence and Bologna. Florence fortified it in 1306, and laid out its simple rectangular plan, with one long main street.

Beginning the 16th century, Scarperia supplied the duchy of Tuscany with knives, forks and scissors, as well as daggers and swords. In 1900 there were still 46 thriving firms, although machine-made competition has cut into local business, you can still find (expensive) bone or horn-handled cutlery.

Dominating the town is the crenellated Palazzo dei Vicari, dating from 1306 and so heavily decorated with stone and ceramic coats of arms (every Vicar, or governor, who ever served was obliged to stick on his family's crest) that it resembles a page from a postage stamp album. Its atrium and upper halls have 14th- and 15th-century frescoes, the earliest ones by the school of Giotto; another, Madonna with Child and Saints (1554) is by the school of Ghirlandaio.