Textile Arts Council

Tour to Milan, Florence and Points Between

with the Textile Arts Council

and

Laura Camerlengo

Curator in Charge of Costume and Textile Arts
at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

April 13th to 20th, 2026


Overview

Please join us on a spring tour to northern Italy, a land whose textile traditions are
memorialized in the silk and embroidered finery depicted in Renaissance frescoes and
paintings – and continue to dazzle to this day on haute couture runways. We will spend
three nights in Milan to see collections of costume and fashion from the 1700s to the
early 2000s; antique rugs and tapestries from around the world; and, on an excursion to
the shores of Lake Como, an extraordinary “library” of antique textiles consulted by
scholars far and wide, as well as a museum on the silk-making process. Then on to
Florence for four nights, en route stopping in Pistoia, a major center for the production of
embroidered cloth; and in Prato, whose textile industry originated in the Middle Ages and
remains one of the most important in Europe to the present day. In Florence we will begin
with a curator-led tour of the Museum of Costume and Fashion in the Pitti Palace, whose
collection includes costume from the 18th century to the early 2000s, specifically a
selection of rare and precious dresses accompanied by accessories, shoes, hats, fans,
parasols, and bags. Other highlights: a tour at a center that is keeping alive the tradition of
hand weaving silk with gold and silver; visits to a palace and chapels to admire the
fashions from the 14th and 15th centuries in works of art; a hands-on textile workshop; and
the ever-popular Ferragamo Museum.


PROGRAM INFORMATION

LAND-ONLY TOUR PRICE:
$4,995 per person, double occupancy
$6,490 per person, single occupancy (includes $1,495 single supplement)

The Tour Price is based on a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 17 participants.
The Tour Price does not include a mandatory $400 per person, non-refundable,
tax-deductible donation to the Textile Arts Council.
 

TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE:

Please book online using this link to register and pay your deposit:

https://tri.ps/QwZPk

For more information, please reach out to the Textile Arts Council