Visit the San Lorenzo Market in Florence

Min. reading

At the San Lorenzo Market in Florence there is not just fruit and vegetables: discover this luxury bazar of italian cuisine!

Five minutes on foot from our Hotel Il Guelfo Bianco you can reach the Market of San Lorenzo, a piece of Florentine history, where you can purchase high quality gastronomic products and enjoy a few hours of your stay in a very pleasant and appetizing place.

In San Lorenzo, people coming from the countryside of Florence used to sell fruit and vegetables on the barocci, the stalls that once went from the basilica to Piazza San Lorenzo. Also, when the heart of the city was still inhabited, the families of the centre of Florence used to have their shopping delivered home from the market.

Therefore the San Lorenzo market, both then and now, represents one of the social and economical cores of the city, with its elegant architecture – originally in iron, pig iron and glass – built in 1870 in the Camaldoli area and created by Giuseppe Mengoni, who, a few years earlier, had created the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan giving a nod towards 18th century Paris.

Immediately assimilated in the architectural context of the city, a perfect balance between the classical style of its exterior and the liberty style of its interior design, the market had consisted for a long period of just one half-raised ground floor, where butchers and greengrocers used to sell high quality meat and fresh fruit and vegetables, while shops and stalls selling every kind of goods proliferated outside of the building.

Its current second floor – built in 1960 – is memorable for its large size, its unique design and delicious food.

Here you will find the highest standards of Italian gastronomy, following an exclusive path of restaurants, flavours, wines and specialties, not only of Tuscany, but from all of our country.

Last but not least, in the Market of San Lorenzo you will also find wonderful flowers, the typical “Lampredotto sandwich” of the Osteria Nerbone, the very famous Chianina Steak, a stand dedicated to products coming from the Middle East and so much more.

Oh, I forgot: I don’t recall any dishonest merchants, but San Lorenzo is still a market and “business men have the same religion throughout the whole world”, as poet Heinrich Heine asserted. So pay a little bit of attention to what you buy and don’t be afraid to negotiate on the price.

Enjoy your gastronomic trip and book your stay at Hotel Il Guelfo Bianco in Florence!