Mercato Centrale
Florence's grand 19th-century covered market, in the San Lorenzo district. The ground floor is a genuine working food market — butchers, fishmongers, produce stalls, and specialty grocers, much of it geared toward locals doing real shopping. Upstairs is a food hall with counters selling pasta, pizza, lampredotto, wine and more — a good spot for a casual, varied lunch, especially useful for groups who can't agree on one restaurant.
San Lorenzo street market
The outdoor stalls surrounding the Mercato Centrale and San Lorenzo basilica, mostly selling leather goods, clothing and souvenirs rather than food. Quality varies hugely stall to stall; genuine leather is common but so is a lower-grade product marketed the same way, so it's worth handling items carefully and not assuming every "genuine leather" sign means the same thing.
Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio
A smaller, less touristy food market east of the centre, near Santa Croce, genuinely popular with local residents doing their weekly shopping. A good choice if you want the Mercato Centrale food-market experience without the crowds, plus a handful of well-regarded lunch counters of its own.
The Florence leather market
Often used loosely to refer to the San Lorenzo stalls, though Florence's leather trade is bigger than any one market — Santa Croce's Scuola del Cuoio (leather school) and various Oltrarno workshops offer a more considered, traceable alternative to street-stall shopping, at a higher but more reliable price point. See our Santa Croce guide.