Mercato Centrale is Florence's most storied food market, housed in a magnificent cast-iron and glass pavilion designed by Giuseppe Mengoni — the same architect behind Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — and completed in 1874. The building alone is worth the visit: a soaring Victorian-era structure that feels like a cathedral dedicated entirely to the pleasures of eating. It sits in the San Lorenzo neighbourhood, a gritty, lived-in part of the city that keeps it feeling like a place Florentines actually use rather than a tourist attraction wearing a market's clothing.
Market