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The best markets in Florence depend on what you want from them. For local food go to Sant'Ambrogio, open Monday to Saturday from 7am to 2pm. Lunch is best at the Mercato Centrale. San Lorenzo and the Mercato Nuovo are the places for leather and bargains, while antiques turn up in Piazza Santo Spirito on the second Sunday of the month.
The food markets are a morning affair. By two in the afternoon most of the stalls are packing up, and on Sundays both covered food markets are closed. However, the food hall upstairs at the Mercato Centrale stays open.
Florence has been shifting its markets around for centuries. The Mercato Nuovo, the loggia with the bronze boar, is only "new" because the old market stood where Piazza della Repubblica is today. In fact, even the flea market packed up in 2019 and moved round the corner from Piazza dei Ciompi.
Markets in Florence at a glance
Here they are sorted by what you're actually looking for.
| Need | Market | What to buy | Price range | Days and hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local food | Sant'Ambrogio, Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti | Seasonal vegetables, cheese, bread | € | Mon–Sat, 7am–2pm |
| Local food | Mercato Centrale, ground floor | Meat, fish, cheese, prosciutto | €–€€ | Mon–Sat, morning to early afternoon |
| Lunch | Da Nerbone, Mercato Centrale ground floor | Lampredotto panino | € | Mon–Sat, lunchtime |
| Lunch | Mercato Centrale, first floor | Pasta, pizza, bistecca, wine | €€ | Daily, 9am–11pm |
| Bargains | San Lorenzo outdoor stalls | Leather, scarves, souvenirs | €–€€ (haggle) | Most days, daytime; some Mondays closed |
| Bargains | Mercato Nuovo (Porcellino) | Leather, souvenirs | €–€€ | Daily, 9am–6.30pm |
| Bargains | Cascine Park | Clothes, shoes, household goods | € | Tuesdays, early morning to 2pm |
| Antiques | Piazza Santo Spirito | Furniture, prints, ceramics, vintage | €€–€€€ | 2nd Sunday, 9am–7pm (not July or August) |
| Antiques | Mercato delle Pulci, Largo Annigoni | Bric-a-brac, postcards, collectables | €–€€ | Mon–Sat, daytime |
| Local producers | Fierucola, Piazza Santo Spirito | Organic produce, honey, cheese | €–€€ | 3rd Sunday (not August) |
Which market in Florence is best for local food?
Sant'Ambrogio. It's in Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti, east of Santa Croce. It's the oldest covered market in the city and still where a lot of Florentines do their weekly shop. Outside, growers sell whatever is in season, so courgette flowers in spring and porcini in autumn. Inside there are butchers, bakers and cheese counters, and also the odd stall selling cheese graters next to the pecorino.
So go early. Around 1pm the stall-holders start hosing down the floor and the place empties fast.
Two minutes away is Piazza dei Ciompi, where the flea market stood for decades. There's nothing to buy there now, so most people walk straight past. Still, stop and look up at the walls of the palazzi around the square. The plaques well above your head mark how high the water came in the November 1966 flood.
The ground floor of the Mercato Centrale, on the other hand, is bigger, busier and closer to the station. For cured meat we'd send anyone to Perini, on the Via dell'Ariento side. Think a wall of prosciutto and dozens of homemade sauces for crostini. They let you taste before you buy, which is the only sensible way to choose between twelve kinds of ham. Our private cooking class starts with a market visit just like this. Then everyone drives out to a farmhouse kitchen in the hills.
Where can you eat lunch at a market in Florence?
Da Nerbone, on the ground floor of the Mercato Centrale, has been serving lampredotto since 1872. It's the fourth stomach of the cow, slow-cooked in broth. Then it goes into a roll dipped in the cooking juices, with salsa verde and chilli on top. There are a few tables, but most people eat standing at the marble counter. Expect a queue, especially at lunchtime.
If that's a step too far, go upstairs instead. The food hall stays open every day until 11pm, with pasta, pizza, bistecca and wine. It also solves the problem of a group that can't agree on where to eat. Our guide to things to see at the Mercato Centrale goes through it floor by floor.
Trattoria da Rocco, inside Sant'Ambrogio, is lunch only and cash only, with a short menu that changes every day.
Bargain hunting from San Lorenzo to the Cascine
The outdoor stalls of San Lorenzo run along Via dell'Ariento and around the basilica. They sell leather jackets, belts, bags, scarves and souvenir T-shirts. Prices are there to be negotiated. Quality is mixed, and some of the leather is very far from Florentine, so take your time and touch everything. In 2025 the city brought in closing days on some Mondays, so don't build a Monday morning around it.
The Mercato Nuovo sells much the same, although in our opinion it's slightly more selective. In the middle of the loggia there's a round stone called the Scandal Stone, where the city once punished insolvent debtors and dishonest traders in public. Hardly anyone notices it, because they're all queueing to rub the boar's nose.
For leather made in a workshop rather than sold from a stall, our article on leather in Florence names the craftsmen worth visiting.
The Cascine is a different thing altogether. Every Tuesday morning hundreds of stalls line the avenue of Parco delle Cascine beside the Arno. Expect clothes, shoes, bedding, pots and pans, cheese, fresh produce and a few tables of old bits and pieces. It's the cheapest market in town and also the furthest from the souvenir trade. By lunchtime the stalls are coming down.
Which markets in Florence sell antiques and vintage?
Piazza Santo Spirito, on the second Sunday of the month except July and August. The square fills with furniture, prints, ceramics, old frames and vintage clothes from 9am to 7pm. A week later the same piazza hosts the Fierucola, a market of small organic producers. It's better for honey and cheese than for anything you'd hang on a wall.
During the week, meanwhile, there's the Mercato delle Pulci in Largo Annigoni, next to Sant'Ambrogio, open Monday to Saturday. Postcards, coins, bric-a-brac and the occasional chandelier.
Would you like a morning at the market with someone who knows it? Our Private Florence Cooking Class and Lunch at a Farmhouse in Tuscany with Local Market Tour does exactly that. It costs €450 in total, with the guided market tour and tastings, the private class and the lunch you cook all included.
FAQ
Are markets in Florence open on Sundays?
Some are. The food floors at Sant'Ambrogio and the Mercato Centrale close on Sundays, but the Mercato Centrale food hall upstairs stays open. The Mercato Nuovo is open daily, and Santo Spirito hosts its antiques market on the second Sunday of the month.
Can you haggle at the San Lorenzo market?
Yes, at the outdoor stalls prices are usually negotiable, especially on leather jackets and bags. The food stalls indoors are a different matter: there you pay the price on the label.
What is the oldest covered market in Florence?
Sant'Ambrogio, opened in 1873, a year before the Mercato Centrale. Both iron halls were designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, the architect of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
Is the Mercato Centrale open in the evening?
The first-floor food hall is open every day from 9am to 11pm. By contrast, the ground-floor market stalls close in the early afternoon and on Sundays.
Is the San Lorenzo market the same as the Mercato Centrale?
Not quite. The Mercato Centrale is the iron-and-glass building, with food stalls downstairs and the food hall upstairs. Florentines often call the ground floor San Lorenzo, after the neighbourhood. The leather and souvenir stalls in the streets outside are the San Lorenzo market most visitors mean.
