About 5 minutes walk from our hotel (Hotel Spadi) is Florence’s central market (Mercato Centrale Firenze). There, we found a gourmet market and food court.
A single web site il Mercato Centrale hosts the pages of the central food markets of Florence, Rome, Turin and Milan. The site carries news about the businesses and list upcoming events in the market as well as the piazza surrounding the market. Interesting pages if you are a foodie visiting Italy.
The Central Market is situated on the first floor of the historic covered market of San Lorenzo. The market opened in the spring of 2014, to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the iron and glass structure built in 1874 by the architect Giuseppe Mengoni. He also designed the Sant’ Ambrogio market and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
We got there just before dinner time and the seating area (“food court”) was already 70% filled with diners. The space was airy and attractively presented.
A section of the market was taken up by a cooking school – La Scuola di Cucina Lorenzo de’ Medici – equipped with modern workstations, taking a class here is apparently a rather popular thing for tourists.
A cute fake minivan sells biscoti … and a bakery sells croissants in the morning (displayed on top of the counter) and pizza slices and stuffed breads for lunch and dinner.
This stall specializes in hamburger made from Chianina beef. Chianina cattle originates in the Chiana Valley of Tuscany, has a white coat and is one of the largest cattle breeds in the world. The bistecca alla fiorentina is produced from its meat.
Interestingly, it was stated here at the counter (if you can read it in the photo) that their burger contains 95% beef, 5% pork, and salt and pepper only. Muslims beware.
The one food that I(Chris) was looking forward to try is “lampredotto” made of the fourth stomach of cows. “Lampredotto” is derived from the Italian word for lamprey eels, lampreda, as the tripe resembles the fish in shape and color. The tripe sandwich – panino co i’ lampredotto has been described as a classic Florentine street food. Unfortunately, the stall was not serving when we got there.
Il Tartufo specializes in the eponymous truffle – the fungus. Luciano Savini is a well-known Tuscan seller of the fungus, as well as oils and sauces containing a bit of it. There are apparently many ways one can enjoy the flavor – just looking at the counter which had on display tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and melon.
Tartufo also refers to a dessert that is made of two flavors of gelato and chocolate.
Meat area: preserved or freshly cooked – hams and salamis (Savigni is a popular local brand). Look at the menu, they do panini, focacce and wraps (piadne), and then there is the grill (griglieria).
Among the wine-sellers, there was a wine bar (enoteca) that sold wine by the glass. Some of the wines in the machine that we recognized were very decent – Brunello di Montalcino, Antinori’s Tiganello 2016, and Gaja’s Dagromis Barolo 2014. There were 2 bottles of Brunello by Biondi Santi Tenuta “Greppo” in the cabinet – these are Tuscan and considered Italy’s most expensive wines. We did not see the prices for these wines but Biondi Santi’s Rosso di Montalcino 2015 were sold at 20 euros per glass outside the machine.
A colorful cart sold treats from Sicily (Sicilia) – slush (granita) and deep-fried rice balls stuffed with cheese and other goodies (arancini). We loved arancinis while we were traveling in Taormina, Sicily – see our earlier post.
<< You must be in shock now that you see what we ate at the food court that evening, after having inspected all the delicious Italian options.
The truth was, by the time we reached Florence, we had been on the road for almost 2 weeks and Asian food appeared rather attractive. Besides, the Asian menu looked somewhat respectable for a food court (see the printed place mat) and we were curious to see how authentic it would be.
The verdict was that the plate was not authentic as a dish but the flavors were there and it was overall good. We were not disappointed.
Behind the market, along Via dell’ Ariento is a street market selling all kinds of knickknacks to tourists and possibly locals. It is probably one of the best places to buy inexpensive leather goods as there were many vendors here. The stalls started closing in the afternoon.