The Markets

By now you probably have the impression that all we did on our trip was visit churches, but that's only part of the picture.  One of our favourite things to do is visit the local fruit and veggie markets, and there are great ones in Florence.

We started with a small local market, where locals were doing their (probably daily) shopping to pick up whatever fresh fruit and veggies they needed.

The season seemed far ahead of ours, and of course there were varieties of tomatoes, figs, and other fruit that we would simply never find here.

It's a hustling, bustling, hectic and very colourful place.  This is one place where you get away from the tourist crowds.  I think 90% of the customers were local residents.

It wasn't just fruit and veggies either.  There were great cheeses, a better variety than we see here, and fish as well - above are the traditional salt cod fillets.

And some more unusual produce of the sea!

Shops had rows of pork shoulders or prosciutto hanging from the ceiling.  One of our favourites; Mrs. F.G.'s father used to make this.

And nice rabbits for dinner - not something we've ever cooked.

After that little local market we headed over to the 'mercato centrale', the San Lorenzo market, in a large two story building built for this purpose over 100 years ago.  It's surrounded by the stalls of the outdoor market, selling clothes, hats, leather goods, and souvenirs.

With the Euro Cup 2016 on, football (what we call soccer) jerseys were popular.

But inside there is a wonderful market, with just about everything you can imagine in fresh food available, forty or fifty stalls altogether.

Several fish vendors.

And various other things like garlic and hot peppers.

And such exotic Italian treats as pig's ears.  Don't know how you go about cooking those.

Equally delightful is the upstairs, always just neglected space until two years ago, when it was opened as a food lover's emporium, complete with a cooking school.

Open til midnight every day, and very popular with locals, it has a wine bar, beer barr and coffee bar, and a dozen other stalls offering everything from cakes to sandwiches to pizza and pasta.  You can snack or have a full scale meal.  We enjoyed our snack, and I really enjoyed my fancy cappachino!