Florence: San Lorenzo Market Food Tour & Wine Tasting

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Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/10

Duration3h

GroupUp to 8

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Nine tastings at Florence's oldest market, ending with how locals actually drink wine

You taste nine local foods and six drinks at San Lorenzo Market's family-run stalls, then move to a 1944 wine shop for a sommelier-led tasting with food pairing. The guide introduces you to the vendors who've been there for decades, teaches you how to spot real gelato, and shows you how locals actually finish a meal. Dietary needs are accommodated with advance notice.

Step-by-step itinerary

Florence Market Food and Wine Tour

Pass by historic Medici church
View San Lorenzo Church and Medici Chapels
Explore Central Market building
Visit San Lorenzo Outdoor Leather Market
Meet Marco and taste Tuscan cheeses
Try organic products at Le Lame stand
Enjoy coffee at Bar del Mercato
Taste lampredotto and meatballs with wine
Stop at Tuscan cooking takeaway shop
Wine tasting at historic wine shop
Learn and taste artisanal gelato
Enjoy cantucci with Vin Santo wine

The Experience

"You come here, you taste like a Florentine, not like a tourist," Marco said, sliding a wedge of his 46-variety pecorino window across the counter at San Lorenzo Market. That's the whole point of this Florence market food tour — you're not collecting Instagram moments, you're eating the way the people who work here eat. The guide takes you through the 19th-century Central Market downstairs, where the stalls have been run by the same families for decades, and you stop at the ones that matter: Marco's cheese counter, the Bambi family's lampredotto stand (that's tripe, cooked in a century-old recipe), the Le Lame family's olive oils and vinegars brought daily from the Tuscan hills. Nine tastings and six drinks across the market, including local wines, truffle cheese, balsamic vinegar, fresh cantucci with Vin Santo — the sweet white wine locals pair with it.

After you've worked through the market, you head to a historic wine shop that's been run by three generations of sommeliers since 1944. They pour two wines from the family's own farm and pair them with a main course brought from the market itself — so you're tasting wine the way it's meant to be tasted, with food, in the place where Florentines actually buy it. The shop has 2,500 labels on the walls, and the sommelier walks you through how to read a bottle, how to hold the glass, what you're actually tasting. It's not pretentious; it's practical. Then you finish like an Italian finishes: with gelato, and the guide teaches you how to spot the real thing — the color, the texture, the temperature — so you know which gelateria is worth your money when you're walking around Florence on your own.

The whole thing takes three to four hours. You're moving through the market at a pace that lets you actually talk to the vendors, not rushing past them. The guide is English-speaking and knows these families personally, so when you stop at Bar del Mercato for coffee, you're standing where the market vendors gather in the morning, not at a tourist café. If you have dietary needs — vegetarian, gluten-free, allergies — you email ahead or add a note at booking, and they work with you. Kids under four don't need a ticket and can come along, though food isn't included for them; from four up, they eat with everyone else.

What’s included

Your day includes a local English-speaking guide, entry to San Lorenzo Market with nine food tastings and six drinks (local wines, coffee, Vin Santo), a private wine tasting at a 1944 wine shop with food pairing, a gelato lesson and two flavors, and introductions to the local families running the market stalls. You'll also learn about the Medici family's influence on Florence and receive insider tips for eating like a local.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleAccessible transportStroller friendlyPets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Florence Food Tours by Eating Europe

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to eat what Florentines actually eat, not what's on a tourist menu — the guide's connections to the market vendors and the sommelier's knowledge of the wine shop's own farm wines are what make the difference between tasting and understanding.