La Farmacia Centrale
The owners of this chemist's shop,
Mr. Boldi and Mr. Mascagni, chose the name Centrale when they opened it in 1904,
as it was in the middle of
Corso Italia. Before this date there was a bar there, the 'Bar delle Colonne'
which was a very important point of meeting for
the town. Two of those columns were used later for the
construction of the
pharmacy. After the first world war, in 1919, the shop was sold to other
people: Pietro Marzocchi and
Francesco
Redi - a relative of the famous scientist
Francesco Redi. The furnishings were made by Danelon, a well renown artist in
town. The shelving and the
counter are cream in colour with some decorations in red. There are 140 vases,
that date back to the beginning of the XXth century. In front of the entrance
door, behind the counter, there are two doors leading to the
laboratory and
to the store. At the top of the shelving, there is a round clock supported by
two dragons.
In
1942, after the first bombing, Pietro Marzocch
i
left
and Dr. Ceccherelli took his place in the company. Francesco Redi had
a lot of
important instruments to prepare medicines, among which, for example, a mould
for
suppositories. Now some of these instruments are at the Liceo Scientifico
in Arezzo, while one of Mr. Ceccherelli's heirs has the rest in Monterchi,
a small town nearby. In
1964 the company was broke up and the shop given to Redi’s daughter: Giuliana, who,
in 1995, gave it to her niece Cristina.