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The Mercato Centrale is Florence's main covered food market, in the San Lorenzo district and about 900 metres from Santa Maria Novella station. It is really two markets in one building. The ground floor is a working food market, open Monday to Saturday until the afternoon, while the first floor is a food hall that stays open every day until 11pm.
Florence built it because it had decided to get rid of its old market. When the city became capital of Italy in 1865, the plan to modernise the centre included clearing the Mercato Vecchio, roughly where Piazza della Repubblica stands today, and its traders needed somewhere to go. So a whole block of old houses next to San Lorenzo came down, the area people called the Camaldoli di San Lorenzo, between Via dell'Ariento, Via Sant'Antonino, Via Panicale and Via Santa Chiara, the four streets that still frame the building. The new hall went up in its place. Giuseppe Mengoni designed it in cast iron and glass, with Les Halles in Paris as his model, though he sat it on a loggia of round arches in grey pietra serena, so from the street it looks more Florentine than Parisian. The market opened in May 1874 with an international agricultural exhibition, and it turned 150 in 2024.
Mengoni is better known for the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. He never saw it finished: he fell from the scaffolding of its entrance arch in December 1877, the day before it was due to be inaugurated.
What's on the ground floor of the Mercato Centrale?
Downstairs is the real market, the one Florentines simply call San Lorenzo. Butchers, fishmongers, bakers, fruit and veg, cheese, cured meats and olive oil. Many of the stalls have been run by the same families for generations, and the butchers will sell you tongue and tripe as well as steak.
Tripe is the point here. Florence's favourite street food is lampredotto, the fourth stomach of the cow, slow-cooked and served in a bun with green sauce, and the best-known place to eat it is Da Nerbone, at the market since 1872. Ask for it bagnato and they dip the top of the bun in the cooking broth.
The Mercato Centrale isn't the city's only food market. Sant'Ambrogio, near Santa Croce, is smaller and more local, and Mengoni designed that one too. There's more on both, and on the flea and antiques markets, in our article on markets in Florence.
Where our cooking class begins
Our group cooking class in the Tuscan hills starts on this floor. You meet the guide at Santa Maria Novella station and, if you've chosen the market option, walk to the Mercato Centrale for a guided visit with tastings. The guide introduces you to the bakers, the butchers and the farmers and shows you how to choose seasonal produce, which helps, because without someone to explain it the ground floor can feel like forty versions of the same pecorino. You'll also hear why Tuscan bread has no salt in it.
Then the group is driven out to a kitchen on a private estate in the countryside. You make fresh pasta by hand, a bruschetta with the estate's own olive oil and a tiramisù, and eat it all at lunch with a glass of Chianti. The day takes five to six hours, and children are welcome from the age of eight.
If you'd like to see the market with a guide and then cook with what you've seen, this is the class:
Pasta class in the Tuscan hills, with a market tour first
When is the Mercato Centrale open?
The two floors keep different hours. Downstairs closes in the afternoon and on Sundays, while the food hall is open every day. Entry is free on both floors.
| Floor | What you'll find | Open | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground floor (San Lorenzo market) | Butchers, fishmongers, bakers, fruit and veg, cheese and cured meats, lampredotto | Monday to Saturday until about 3pm (5pm on Saturdays); closed Sundays and public holidays | Seeing a working Florentine market, food gifts, a quick lampredotto |
| First floor (food hall) | More than 20 food counters, a pizzeria, a steak restaurant, a cooking school | Every day, 9am to 11pm | A sit-down lunch or dinner, groups who can't agree on what to eat |
Ground-floor hours can change in summer, and some stalls start closing before the official time, so mornings are safer.
Oil, truffles and things for the suitcase
Extra-virgin olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar and anything with truffle in it. Most counters will let you taste first. Perini, on the ground floor, is known for its prosciutto and its crostini spreads. The last count was around 600 hams on display, with about sixty of them open for slicing at any one time, plus up to forty different sauces for crostini.
Outside the building it's leather jackets, bags, belts and souvenirs, and the quality varies a lot. Read our guide to leather in Florence before you start bargaining. Since 2025 those outdoor stalls also take Mondays off for part of the year: every Monday in January, February, March, August and November, and the first and third Monday in most other months. The covered market isn't affected.
Is the food hall upstairs worth it?
For an easy meal, yes. The first floor reopened in spring 2014, for the building's 140th birthday, as a food hall with more than 20 counters run by independent artisans: a pizzeria, a restaurant serving bistecca alla fiorentina, mozzarella and cheese, a truffle counter, and a cooking school run by Lorenzo de' Medici. You order at any counter and sit wherever there's room. The pizzeria and the steak restaurant are the only places that take table bookings. There's a lift up from the underground car park, too, if someone in your group finds stairs hard.
It isn't the cheapest lunch in town. For something quick and cheap, stay downstairs.
Chianti is sold by the glass and by the bottle. The straw-covered fiaschi you see hanging in shops all over the city are the traditional Chianti bottle and make a decent souvenir, and our article on Chianti wine explained covers what goes into the bottle.
FAQ
Is the Mercato Centrale the same as the San Lorenzo Market?
More or less. The whole iron-and-glass building is the Mercato Centrale, but Florentines usually call the ground-floor market San Lorenzo. The name also covers the outdoor stalls around it, which sell leather and souvenirs rather than food.
Is the Mercato Centrale open on Sundays?
Only upstairs. The food hall opens every day from 9am to 11pm, while the ground-floor market is closed on Sundays and public holidays.
How long do you need at the Mercato Centrale?
Thirty to 45 minutes is enough for a look round downstairs. If you stay for lunch in the food hall, allow an hour or two.
Do you need a ticket for the Mercato Centrale?
No, entry is free on both floors. You only pay for what you eat or buy. Bring some cash for the ground floor, where not every stall takes cards.
