Florence's largest market, which supports Florence's food sceneMercato Centrale (Italian: Mercato Centrale)This red and green building, created in the 1870s by the same architect who designed the Galleria in Milan, has become a market that is now considered the heart of Florence's food scene, bustling with people every day. It closes at 2 PM, and many shops start closing a little earlier, around 1:30 PM, so it's best to visit in the morning. Its excellent location, just a short walk from Florence Central Station and Santa Maria Novella Station, makes it a perfect spot for buying souvenirs, enjoying free samples, and stocking up on ingredients for your evening drinks at the hotel. It's a highly recommended tourist spot that my husband and I absolutely love!
Looking around the market, the first thing that catches your eye is meat, meat, meat! That's right, Florence is all about meat! As if to prove this, there are many butcher shops, displaying various cuts of meat from different kinds of animals. You'll also be surprised by the abundance of processed meat products. In addition, there is a wide variety of fresh produce such as vegetables, fruits, and fish, as well as dried goods, cheese, ham, wine, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. These fresh ingredients are also popular with the locals. The best way to enjoy the market is to sample the food! You can sample almost everything, from cheese and prosciutto to dried fruit, aged balsamic vinegar, and even freshly made olive oil! You can experience the Italian way of valuing seasonal ingredients, so be sure to enjoy sampling various foods. Some shops even allow you to choose your favorite ingredients and enjoy them as a meal on the spot, so if you don't want to waste time on a restaurant lunch, you can grab a quick snack!
Except for pre-packaged items, most food products are sold by weight, so you can buy what you like and in the quantity you like. Many products also allow you to sample before purchasing, so you can't go wrong. For ingredients where you can taste differences in maturation time, sampling is a great way to learn about the variations in depth of flavor. The vegetable section is overflowing with colorful vegetables, and as you'd expect in Italy, there's a wide variety of tomatoes, all looking delicious with their vibrant colors and shine. Furthermore, there are piles of artichokes (carciofi), which are rarely seen in Japanese supermarkets, making it exciting. Here, you can find everything Italian food that cooking enthusiasts will love, from pasta and olive oil to cheese, dried porcini mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes! Choosing things for yourself and friends is a lot of fun! In particular, the colorful and Italian-style dried spice mixes that you can mix with olive oil to make pasta sauce are compact and lightweight, making them a great souvenir!
I enjoyed shopping at various shops, but among them, the shop I would recommend to Japanese people is this one:Enoteca Salumeria LombardiThis shop offers a wide variety of Italian ingredients, including cheese, wine, salami, prosciutto, balsamic vinegar, porcini mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes. They stock high-quality wines from Tuscany and other regions, as well as Pecorino and Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses from Pienza in Tuscany, and guaranteed balsamic vinegar. The shop is also filled with many other items perfect for souvenirs, such as truffle products, pâté, olive oil, and sweets. But the best thing about this shop is that there are many Japanese staff members! Even if you can manage a few Italian greetings, you often encounter language barriers when it comes to shopping. In such situations, being able to converse in Japanese in Italy is incredibly helpful and brings immense joy.
On this day, there were two staff members who could speak Japanese. The staff member who accompanied my husband and me as a guide was this stylish and gentle young man. Apparently, he was a student who came from Japan to study in England, where he studied bespoke suits, before flying to Italy to continue his design studies. He was also working part-time here in between classes to make ends meet. It was inspiring to see a young person who had spread their wings from Japan and was working hard overseas. And thankfully, thanks to him thoroughly introducing us to the recommended items at this Italian shop in Japanese, we were able to get what we wanted!
This shop also offers tastings, and they particularly recommended Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano cheeses. Bringing cheese back to Japan is possible if it's vacuum-packed, even for very hard to semi-hard cheeses. Incidentally, fresh cheeses like mozzarella are sold vacuum-packed and immersed in whey, but temperature control is difficult, and they taste best when fresh, so it's best to eat them as soon as possible after production; therefore, they're not really suitable for taking home. The cheeses we sampled here were 12-month, 36-month, and 60-month aged Parmigiano-Reggiano. We started with the shortest aged 12-month cheese, and interestingly, the difference was striking. While they were all delicious, the longer the aging period, the more the color changes, and the more aroma, richness, and depth of flavor are brought out, resulting in a completely different level of deliciousness. Cheese can be a bit heavy in terms of volume, but it's sure to be a welcome souvenir. For those buying in bulk, shipping arrangements to Japan are possible, so please inquire. Now that we've finished shopping for various souvenirs, it's almost lunchtime, so next time I'll introduce some recommended trattorias in Florence!
Florence Central Market (Mercato Centrale)
Address: Piazza del Mercato Centrale, 50123 Florence, Italy TEL: +39 055 210214
Opening hours: 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM Closed: Sundays (Note: Closed for summer holidays in mid-August)
