Markets in Florence

San Lorenzo and Sant’Ambrogio: two districts of  Florence with a wealth of traditions and works of art, immersed within an urban fabric where history and modernity live side by side.
San Lorenzo, the heart of Florence best-know to tourist and visitors, grew up in the early Middle Ages around the church of the same name. During the Renaissance it became the centre and symbol of the power of the Medici, who enriched it with masterpieces such as Palazzo Medici Riccardi, a true prototype of the aristocratic Florentine mansion, the monumental complex of San Lorenzo itself, renovated through intervention by Filippo Brunelleschi and later by Michelangelo, and the Chapel of the Princes, housing the sepulchres of the Grand-dukes of the Medici dynasty.
Nevertheless, despite its monumental vocation, the district of San Lorenzo still offers to those who know how to look for them, precious secrets about real people and places, as well as masterpieces of outstanding beauty but less well-know, such as the Cristo dello Scalzo with fine monochrome frescoes by Andrea del Sarto and the Last Supper magnificently frescoed by Andrea del Castagno in Refectory of  Sant’Apollonia.

Slightly further from the center, but no less lively, Sant’Ambrogio is possibly the last surviving remnant of popular Florence, the Florence described in the novels of Vasco Pratolini, which has not allowed itself to be crystallised within a oleographic image but is as teeming with life and happening as ever, the site of artistic and gastronomic experiments, a vital and multicultural quarter.
Stretching out behind the Basilica di Santa Croce, studded with precious gems such as the Loggia del Pesce, the church of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, the very ancient church dedicated to Sant’Ambrogio and the nineteenth-century Synagogue, as well as artistic masterpieces this quarter reveals to visitors innumerable little treasures of authenticity.
The districts of  San lorenzo and Sant’Ambrogio, despite their differences in history and destiny, have one very singnificant element in common: they both boast historic food markets where visitors can lose themselves amids the stalls and pillars, the flavours and the fragrances, discovering all the most authentic which the food and wine traditions of Florence and its surroundings have to offer.

The construction of two new food markets was decided in the period in which Florence became the capital of Italy (1865-1870), when the city underwent significant operations of urban regeneration. Both the markets are housed in nineteenth-century structures which are in themselves worthy of a visit, designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, one of the most avant-garde architects of the time.

The Central Market of San Lorenzo, made of cast-iton, iron and glass, is the most prestigious of the late nineteenth-century structures built in Florence; constructed between 1870 and 1874, it is a trumph of architectural techniques which were absolutely novel at the time.

The Market of Sant'Ambrogio, despite being smaller than that of San Lorenzo, is also an extremely attractive building of a suggestive art nouveau inspiration.

"Food markets" in Florence

Fruit and Vegetables Main Market
Address: Viale Guidoni
Opening times: From Tuesday to Thursday from 10 to 11am; Saturday from 9 to 10 am

Le Cure market
Address: Piazza delle Cure
Opening times: every morning except Sunday and public holidays

Santo Spirito market
Address: Piazza Santo Spirito
Opening times: every morning except Sunday and public holidays; all day on the second Sunday of every month