Everyone has heard of the Mercato Centrale in Florence, a large building inspired in the Parisian architecture in the San Lorenzo neighborhood that brings together the best ingredients in the region, as well as restaurants where to taste them. It is impossible to reach this gastronomic destination without noticing the Mercato di San Lorenzo, with its stalls scattered along the streets surrounding the Mercato Centrale.
Instead of food products, in the stalls you will find leather goods, clothing, accessories and all kinds of souvenirs. There are hundreds of stalls (500) displaying ceramics, clothing, stationery, souvenirs, and various leather goods, including bags, belts, wallets, and jackets. A tip: negotiate the price! In addition to being fun, the bargain can yield great purchases at very affordable prices. Also, a new Florentine law, made after the Covid era: by 2023, markets in the historic center of Florence will have to sell only products made in Florence, Tuscany, Italy; so, you can be sure to buy local handcrafts.
The Medici neighborhood
Walking through San Lorenzo is to relive the time of the Medici, going through places where the family made history and finding the mix between sumptuous monuments and buildings and the simplicity of the market stalls that have always been part of the scene. We cannot know for sure if there were stalls around the church when the Medici ruled Florence, but we like to think that the Florentines of the past gossiped on the most powerful family of the time while shopping on those same streets. Isn’t it interesting to imagine?
While the people worked, did their shopping (probably at Piazzale della Repubblica, where the biggest market of the time was held), and caught up with the conversation, the Medici left a legacy that lasts till nowadays, like the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, that was the family home for decades. There, just a few steps away from Mercato San Lorenzo, you can still admire the splendid halls, as well as the impressive Chapel of the Magi (entrance in Via Cavour). And that’s not all. The neighborhood also holds the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the city’s cathedral for three centuries, whose façade is still unfinished, which makes it even more fascinating. The Laurentian Medicean Library is there too, a building designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti that houses one of the most important collections of manuscripts in the world. And the Medici Chapels, an extraordinary mausoleum with the family’s monumental tombs (there is Lorenzo the Magnificent).
Change of location
Until 2013, the stalls of the Mercato di San Lorenzo extended from Piazza San Lorenzo to Via dell’Ariento and surrounded the Basilica di San Lorenzo. In that year, the Council of Florence determined that the stalls should be moved to the Mercato Centrale perimeter, where they are today. The transference was completed in January 2014.
The Mercato di San Lorenzo is certainly the most traditional in the city, and it is open from Tuesday to Saturday, from morning until night, when the street vendors transport their stalls to the local magazines, where the wooden stands rest until the next morning, when they are carried again to their spots and get ready to receive visitors and residents in another working day. Would you like to be one of these visitors? We would love to have you as our guest at Antica Torre Tornabuoni.
Photo: http://www.storicomercatocentrale.it/ – Mercato di San Lorenzo in 1980