Via Giulia, 174 – 00186 Roma. Via Palermo, 5 – 20121 Milano. a venture that proposes solutions for floorings and wall facings. The materials are common: marble, wood, stone, terracotta. The techniques, exceptional. ID company collaborates with twelve different craft workshops, scattered all over Italy and capable of working miracles. Such as reproducing Cosmati floors of the 18th century, or Venetian terrazzo. As for the terracotta tiles, they are treated with special waxes and oils, and decorated by hand. The mosaics are made in exactly the same way as they used to be: to produce just one square metre of mosaic five thousand tesserae have to be split by hand to get ten thousand measuring a centimetre. info@id-company.com

  Via Mario de’ Fiori, 59/B – 00187 – Roma. The windows of the shop that gives onto Via Mario de’ Fiori, in Rome, have panes of glass like the ones used by the FBI. Anyone looking in can’t see who is observing them from the other side. Hedy Martinelli and her two daughters mix sharkskin and diamonds, wood and silver, iron links and impressions of every kind. www.hedymartinelli.net

    Studio 64, Via Il Prato, 64 – 50123 – Firenze. At no. 64, Via Il Prato in Florence, Fiona Corsini and Alexander Hamilton work in tendem as if they were a single pair of hands. Alex as decorator and Fiona as textile designer. The attention paid to the use of traditional materials and a greater concern for environmental sustainability are important aspects of their work. The forms of the lampshades and their painted decorations change to suit the requirements of the client. The use of raw linen as a support for the paintings is another leitmotiv of their work. The natural material is used for everything from curtains to bedheads, from screens to door panels and wall coverings. The distinctive character arises from the technique. The painting is done in watercolour. www.fionacorsini.com

Via M. Recanati 27 – 80046 San Giorgio a Cremano (NA). It was 1925 when Ms. Carolina decided to open her first shop in the center of Naples. She sewed shirts for a select and discerning clientele according to the rules of Neapolitan high tailoring, which at the time was the world authority in matters of elegance. Today, the creations of what has become an international band are distributed all over Europe, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Korea and Russia, the latter home to one of the two directly owned shops. The secret of the Finamore family is combining beauty and craftsmanship. Their shirts come in a wide range of fabrics – cottons, linen blends, muslin, cambric, Irish linens – to which they add approximately 40 different collar styles and 5 different cuffs, all enriched by handstitched letters and buttons in Australian mother-of-pearl. The specialty of the house is the ‘tailor-made’ service, which knows no obstacle of distance insofar as the client’s measurements, taken by the globetrotting entrepreneurs in their countless business trips, are sent directly to the factory on the slopes of Vesuvius and transformed by expert tailors into exclusive garments to be worn with pleasure and pride. www.finamore.it

AdeS and glass have known each other for many years. After returning to Venice in 2000 he abandoned blown glass in favor of three-dimensional wall-mounted works, using blown glass panels, mirrored or polished. ades@desantillana.com  

Via dei Pini, 216 – 56010 Migliarino Pisano (PI). With her collections of silk, linen and cashmere scarves hand-woven on old-fashioned looms Dianora Salviati, descendant of a great Tuscan family that bears the title of duke and who can count among her ancestors Donna Franca Florio, legendary icon of inimitable style and allure at the turn of the 19th century, has taken up a significant family heritage and made the most of it. Salviati’s scarves are handcrafted with meticulous care, using methods of weaving handed down since the Renaissance by expert practitioners of this specific sector, so that each individual piece bears witness to the highest quality of workmanship and the absolute mastery of the craft. Dianora Salviati mixes ancestral elements, colours and techniques with borrowings of exquisite topicality from a research in which, keeping a distance from current fashions and inspirations, she follows solely her own imagination, her own stubbornly independent and personal creative course. www.dianorasalviati.com

Via de’ Pandolfini, 16 – 50122 Firenze. Daniele Rossi, born in 1958, has honed his skills on works of art for over thirty years, and now holds a position of prominence in the field of conservation in Italy. He considers himself fortunate, even though his constant dedication and love for his work forces him to lead a life of seclusion. He has worked for important collectors and antiquarians in Italy and America, especially in New York. www.danielerossi.it

She describes herself as a “lucky girl” and is one of those unmistakably and deeply Italian beauties that have set their mark on an era. With a statuesque physique, a sculptured face, whose features are at once etched and soft, and harmoniously irregular proportions, Bianca Balti was born in Lodi, not far from Milan, in 1984. Real success came for her in 2005 thanks to the international advertising of Dolce & Gabbana, who personally chose her as the face of the house. In 2007, the eccentric and brillant director Abel Ferrara pickhed her to star in the film Go Go Tales, alongside Stefania Rocca and Asia Argento, with whom she appeared on a memorable red carpet for the film’s screening at the Cannes Festival.

San Marco, 3357 – 30124 Venezia. Stella, as everyone knows her, is a fascinating Milan native who has since become profoundly rooted in the city she loves best, Venice. Her charming and luminous shop is in the San Samuele quarter, just a short walk from Palazzo Grassi. Architectural details, Venetian contrasts, suggestions and colors are her source of inspiration. Thus are born tablecloths, curtains, towels, bedspreads and pillows that decorate a room like paintings transformed into fabric, personalizing every space. The collection is produced by special jacquard weaving techniques that combine hand craftsmanship and maximum attention to quality. www.chiarastellacattana.it  

Piazzale Baiamonti, 1 – 20154 Milano. CB Made in Italy was founded in Milan in 2010 by Cecilia Bringheli with the aim of producing the best handmade shoes, hard-wearing and yet absolutely comfortable, for men and women. CB offers an excellent line of moccasins and slippers. With a touch of the kind of eccentricity that never does any harm. “Each pair requires a minimum of three hours of work by our skilled and dedicated craftsmen, who seem to still belong to a lost era in which quality was everything.” www.cbmadeinitaly.