Do you need a special occasion for offering something to those you love the most?

Well, if you answer in the affirmative, the special occasion could be represented by a visit to the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, which is hidden among the Florentine apartments that opens onto Via della Scala.

Situated just a few steps from the homonymous basilica (which is described in another chapter of this short tourist guide), the Officina was founded in 1221 by the Dominican friars, who, abiding to the rule "ora et labora", began to cultivate officinal herbs used in the preparation of medicines, balsams and ointments.

Four centuries later, in 1612, the Officina was opened to the public and in less than a hundred of years its popularity increased and its products began to be sold to the noble families in France, England and Russia, and even in India and China!

The Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella has now become a sort of shop-museum where you can buy perfumes, soaps, creams, herbs, infusions and the like. As you can read in the website of the Officina, all of these goods are produced using "high-quality raw materials and following the ancient artisanal procedures of the Dominican friars".

So, at the end of your holidays in Tuscany, you could tell your friends and relatives that not only you have seen museums and historic residences, monuments and Florentine villas ... but that you have also visited the most ancient pharmacy in Europe.