By Ines Keane
Start with the name, because it misleads. The famous “straw hat of Florence” belongs to a town outside the city: Signa. Every source we read agrees on that point, and on very little else.
Where Signa sits
The Visit Tuscany site, a regional tourism board, says Signa lies at the junction of three rivers, the Arno, the Bisenzio and the Ombrone Pistoiese. It calls the straw hat the town’s signature craft, known in Italian as the cappello di paglia. The municipal page for the town’s Straw Museum says Signa was the centre of manufacture of hats from this material until the 1950s.
The man and the wheat
All the sources we read give the credit to one person: Domenico Michelacci. Visit Tuscany calls him an enterprising 18th-century man who was among the first to grow wheat for weaving and not only for food. The municipal page says that at the beginning of the 18th century he began straw production on an industrial scale. A third site, a Tuscany villa rental company’s museum page, says that in 1718 he cultivated a strain of wheat it spells “mazuolo” and later “Marzuolo”. The Italy Magazine article is blunter. It says he founded the straw hat industry in Signa.
The wheat is called grano marzuolo, and the sources describe it in opposite ways. Visit Tuscany says it was set apart by tiny grains and small ears. Italy Magazine and the villa company both say long bearded ears. We do not know which description is right. Both agree on the quality that mattered: uniform colour, length and pliability, which Italy Magazine says made the straw good for plaiting. Italy Magazine adds that he harvested the wheat before it matured fully.
What was made
Italy Magazine says the straw went into hats and also shoes and baskets. His hats, it says, were low-crowned and became fashionable among wealthy women who wanted a country-girl look. Later, it says, straw hats and boaters became fashionable for men too. The villa company page repeats the low-crowned hat and the wealthy women, and adds that by the 16th century straw weaving in Tuscany had become highly refined and that Grand Duke Cosimo I sent locally made hats as gifts to sovereigns across Europe. That is a single source’s claim.
Who did the plaiting
A travel site, About Italy, says the plaiting was led by women called trecciaiole, who braided wheat stalks, and that the work was respected enough to sometimes replace the need for a dowry. A travel blog, My Flora Guide, calls the straw hat a godsend for women in the Florentine area, because weaving could be done at home and was paid. We read only the search excerpt of that page, so we give it as the blog’s claim and nothing more.
Two names, one hat
About Italy says the hats shipped from the port of Livorno, which gave them the English name Leghorn hats. So one name points to the city whose merchants and visitors made it famous, and the other to the port the cargo left from. Our reading: neither name tells a buyer where a particular hat was plaited, and none of the sources mentions a protected name or certification mark. A buyer who wants a hat from Signa would have to ask where it was made.
The museum, and three dates
The Museo della Paglia e dell’Intreccio in Signa tells the story, but its dates do not agree. The villa company says it opened in 1997 and is dedicated to Michelacci. About Italy says it was founded in 2017. The municipal page says a new building was inaugurated on 10 June 2023, with three levels and seven exhibition rooms. These may all be true at once: a museum opened in 1997, a project relaunched in 2017, a building inaugurated in 2023. That is our reading. No source says it.
What is inside is better agreed. Visit Tuscany and the municipal page both list straw and woven objects, working tools and machines, historical photographs and artworks, and a selection of hats from the late 19th century to 1970. The municipal page adds a needling machine that compacts a fibre mattress with vertically moving needles.
Dates in order
- 16th century: Cosimo I sends hats as gifts, villa company page.
- Beginning of the 18th century: industrial-scale straw production, municipal page.
- 1718: Michelacci cultivates the wheat strain, villa company page.
- 1800s: the straw hat trend roots in Florence, About Italy.
- Late 19th century to 1970: the span of the hats in the museum, three sources.
- 1950s: Signa’s hat manufacture ends or fades, municipal page, Italy Magazine and villa company page.
- 1997, 2017, 2023: museum opening, founding, new building.
Side by side
The sources agree on the person, the town and the 1950s. They differ on the wheat’s ears, on whether his date is “beginning of the 18th century” or 1718, and on the museum. Our reading is that none of the differences is a contradiction about the hat itself. They may come from tourism pages that retell one another.
What kind of sources these are
A regional tourism board, a municipal museum page, a magazine article from 2014, a villa rental company’s promotional page, a travel site and a travel blog. Not one is a scholarly history, and we found no archive or museum catalogue. Several of the facts above appear on only one page.
What we left out
Prices, opening hours, the film credits and celebrity wearers that About Italy lists, the park and leisure sections of the tourism page, and any care or sizing advice. We also left out the sculptor named on the municipal page, since we cannot confirm whether he is living.
Quick answers
Where is the Florentine straw hat made? In Signa, near Florence, according to Visit Tuscany and Italy Magazine. Signa was the centre of manufacture until the 1950s, according to the municipal museum page.
Why is it called a Leghorn hat? About Italy says the hats were shipped from the port of Livorno, which gave them the English name Leghorn.
What wheat was used? Grano marzuolo, according to Visit Tuscany, Italy Magazine and About Italy. Visit Tuscany describes small ears. Italy Magazine describes long bearded ears.
Related on this site: bolzano-christmas-market-piazza-walther, cadore-eyewear-museum-pieve-di-cadore, florentine-marbled-paper-how-its-made
Roam first. Shop later.