The Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio is the food market Florentines actually shop at, far smaller and more local than the tourist-heavy Mercato Centrale across town. Under a nineteenth-century cast-iron hall and on the stalls spilling into the surrounding piazza, growers sell fruit, vegetables, cheese, cured meats, and flowers, while a cluster of cheap counters and trattorie feed traders and residents.
Come in the morning when the produce is freshest and join the locals at one of the no-frills lunch spots inside, such as the long-running Rosticceria. It is the best place in the centre to feel the everyday rhythm of the city and to assemble a picnic of Tuscan bread, pecorino, and ripe tomatoes.