What is leather? Leather is nothing but hide of an animal that is treated using certain procedures. Before we address the question of what is special about Italian leather we need to understand what leather and tanning is. The process of treating leather is called tanning. Word tanning comes from the procedure of using a chemical called tannin. Skin of hide of the animal would decompose if not treated. There are various ways to treat animal hide like using ash, using lime water, scraping and drying. The steps involve curing, soaking, liming then un-hairing, de-liming ad pickling. With modern advancements the procedures too have become more varied and more advanced. The process of tanning has been undertaken by various civilizations across the world for millenniums. There may be some variations from one place to the other.