Calzoleria Salvati

The story

The story of the Salvati shoemaker's shop begins in Serra Pedace, in the Presila hills a few kilometres from Cosenza: between the late 1920s and the early 1930s, depending on the source, the first Giuseppe Salvati opened his workshop there. In 1958 the family moved into the city, and the shop has been on Corso Telesio, at number 99, ever since. Today the third generation carries it on: the grandson Giuseppe, Antonio's son, who has worked in the shop since 1987, after his military service.

The work bench was commissioned by the grandfather himself: at its centre an iron wheel divided into compartments, holding all the small parts needed to make a shoe, and below it a brazier that warmed whoever sat working. Antonio, born in 1929, explained in 2013 that you can do almost anything to a shoe: lengthen it, shorten it, widen it, change the thickness of the sole. The secret, he said, lies in gentleness of touch ("il garbo").

What to look for

Once inside, look at the shoe lasts hanging on the walls, used in his day by the grandfather, and at the iron wheel of compartments at the centre of the work bench.