Museo Opificio delle Pietre Dure

In the 16th century, Florentine craftsmen perfected the art of pietre dure, piecing together cut pieces of precious and semi-precious stones in an inlay process, and the Medici-founded institute devoted to the craft has been in this building since 1796. Long ago misnamed a "Florentine mosaic" by the tourism industry, this is a highly refined craft in which skilled artisans (artists, really) create scenes and boldly colored intricate designs in everything from cameos and tabletops to never-fade stone "paintings." The collection in this museum is small, but the pieces are uniformly excellent. Souvenir shops all over town sell modern pietre dure items -- much of it mass-produced junk, but some very nice. The best contemporary maestro is Ilio de Filippis, whose workshop is called Pitti Mosaici.

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