I counted the shoes by the door of a friend's apartment in Bologna. There were four.
The country that makes the shoes wears the fewest
One district outside Venice turns out around 20 million pairs a year, and 95 percent of it is women's shoes. Almost all of it leaves the country.
You are judged by your shoes
Italians still say it without irony. Where that is taken seriously, a big collection is not an asset. It is one more chance to be caught in the wrong pair.
She never asks whether she likes it
She asks what she is already wearing. Shoes are bought last, after the clothes, and only if they agree with most of what is already in the closet.
A flat, a low sandal, a shoe that disappears, a resoled boot
That is the whole list. Everything else that passes through the house is a guest.
Start with the trousers
Buy the pair that agrees with what you actually wear on a Tuesday, and let it be boring.