Mercato Centrale, Florence

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Mercato Centrale, which is situated close to San Lorenzo, is open-air market that has cast-iron structure dating back to 1874. This market offers a variety of food shops catering to local residents and restaurants. There is also a dining corner where one can eat good food at ridiculously low prices.
Mercato Centrale is a great way to sample some of the fresh food and produce of Tuscany.
The market is open from monday to saturday, 7-14 hours, closed on sunday.

What to buy: A veriety of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, seafoods, pastas, oils, herbs, cheeses, bakeries.... Mercato Centrale is lively food market not to miss when visiting Florence.

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Just behind the stalls of the San Lorenzo outdoor market along Via dell’Ariento are the vast halls of Mercato Centrale: an 1874-established foodie's paradise of fresh fruits and vegetables, breads, spices, cheeses, meats, wine, dried pastas and mushrooms, and every other type of comestible for the kitchen you can think of. If you’re renting an apartment with cooking facilities, here’s where to stock the panty. Traveling on a budget? Great place to pick up yummy picnic fixin’s.

If you find yourself in the Mercato Centrale Florence (address Piazza S Lorenzo 5/R 50123 Firenze Florence Italy), DO NOT BUY any leather coats or accessories from PARSA LEATHER COATS & ACCESSORIES. The owner ALBERTO is a liar and a thief. He will sell you a coat on the premise it can be made to your specifications and FEDExed to your home anywhere in the world within 10 business days duty free. Two and a half months later and with the help of a merchant across the street (who I must say is an honourable man) the coats were eventually shipped and one of them is NOT what I had purchased. When I have attempted to contact the store 39 055 29 41 59 Alberto is never there and the remaining staff are unwilling to help or cannot speak English. If you want to have GREAT EXPERIENCE GO TO BOTTEGA FIORENTINA across the street and ask for GIANLUCA. This man voluntarily helped me with the communications barrier to assist me in getting Alberto to live up ti him commitment.

What to buy: LEATHER COATS - go to BOTTEGA FIORENTINA and ask for GIANLUCA!!!!

The Mercato centrale was our favorite place in Florence! you can go there in the morning for fresh pastries and paninis, delicious cappuccino and expresso, all on the cheap! Everything there is fresh and delicious!

What to buy: Leather, clothing, wine, salami, cheeses, paper goods

What to pay: Everything is cheap in Florence, relatively speaking, of course!

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A little north of the Medici Chapel is the Central market, which is a mix of a local food market and a tourist market. Outside stretching all the way to Piazza San Lorenzo is a locally made leather goods market.

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The enter name is Farmacia Del Mercato Centrale Del Dr Messori Federico! And, it is amazing! The fresh fish looks fantastic! I wished I had a kitchen in our hotel room so we could make and eat such wonderful produce and meat. This market was very clean and people were eager to see if you were interested in anything.

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Mercato Centrale is simply the place where you purchase all of your foodstuffs. If has two floors if I remember correctly and has every kind of food, drink and vegetable that you want, including food stalls where you could grab a quick lunch. I love food and I loved visiting, unfortunately we were staying in a hotel and I couldn't bring anything back except a bottle of limoncello!

Leather jackets, colorful scarves, and stationery are all staples at this market. So, when you're low on cash, or ideas, but still have gifts and souveniers to buy, spend a couple hours browsing through the many stalls in San Lorenzo.

What to buy: Leather jackets, colorful scarves, and stationery are all staples at this market. So, when you're low on cash, or ideas, but still have gifts and souveniers to buy, spend a couple hours browsing through the many stalls in San Lorenzo.

To get the BEST deals, make sure that you take the side street. It runs in front of Mercato Centrale (the food market) and prices are sometimes much lower, although the options are fewer.

What to pay: There is room for bargaining. . . English is the language of choice. . .and what you pay depends on how good you are at bargaining, or if you're willing to do it at all.

There is a fresh pasta shop in the Mercato Centrale. It is to die for. We've got these spinach and ricotta ravioli twice and there is nothing better. They also have homemade sauses and cut their fresh egg pasta as you order it. Their preperation room is open by windows and you can see the whole production taking place. We had a great time watching them make the ravioli. The price is fairly resonable. If you go on Tuesday they have a special on the ravioli for almost half the price. Granted you have to have a place to cook them but if you are staying in a hostel or appartment it works out great.

What to pay: 1 kg is about 7 euros. This even rivals the supermarket price for the prepacked assortments

Walking through this market made me wish I had a complete kitchen in the hotel room!
I would have loved to buy much of the good food on display there and then go back and start cooking.But we had to restrict ourselves to getting some dried fruit for snacking. It was excellent!