Giunti Odeon - Cinema

Florence turned a century-old cinema into what may be the most beautiful bookshop in the world. Giunti Odeon opened in late 2023 inside the Palazzo dello Strozzino, a Renaissance palace dating to 1457, where the Art Deco Cinema Odeon had screened films since 1922. Restored by Florence's Benaim studio, the 1,500-square-metre space now holds a bookshop in the former stalls, a café and restaurant, and an illuminated stained-glass dome that had been obscured for decades. The cinema still runs, with evening screenings at 9pm in the original language with subtitles, so you can browse books all afternoon and catch a film in the same room after dark.