The average American business closes shop after about 21 years. (Spare a thought for those enterprises in the back half of the bell curve, which never reach the legal drinking age.) Some businesses, though, last longer lot longer.
Involving Dominican friars, the Medici family, the Black Death, a rediscovered citrus fruit, and the world’s oldest apothecary, the story of Santa Maria Novella and its fragrances is 800 years long