Lampredotto at Nerbone & Gelato at Gelateria dei Neri
No visit to Florence is complete without eating the way Florentines actually eat: standing at a market counter with a tripe sandwich in one hand, or queuing for a scoop of gelato so dense and flavourful it makes supermarket ice cream feel like a cruel joke. These two addresses are the real deal, beloved by locals and consistently ignored by the guidebook-clutching crowds heading for the nearest to
Nerbone — Lampredotto Since 1872
Nerbone has operated inside the Mercato Centrale since the market opened, and the lampredotto sandwich — slow-braised bovine tripe, ladled into a crusty semolina roll and finished with salsa verde and chilli oil — remains the definitive version in a city that takes its offal seriously. Order at the counter, eat standing, and order a glass of house red for €1.50.
If tripe is a step too far, Nerbone also does a bollito (boiled beef) sandwich and a rotating daily pasta that is always generous and always cheap. The ribollita on cold winter days is as good as it gets in Florence.
Gelateria dei Neri — Serious Gelato
Located on Via dei Neri in the Santa Croce neighbourhood, Gelateria dei Neri has been making gelato the slow way — fresh ingredients, no artificial colouring, flavours that rotate with the season — since 1987. The pistachio (made with Sicilian Bronte nuts) and the dark chocolate are benchmarks against which all other Florentine gelato should be measured.
The creaminess comes from a higher milk-to-air ratio than mass-produced gelato; you will notice the difference immediately. A two-scoop cone costs around €3. Queue outside, eat on the steps of the nearby Santa Croce church.
The Florentine Food Philosophy
Florentine cuisine is emphatically not about luxury ingredients — it is about peasant ingenuity applied to offal, stale bread, cheap beans and whatever the garden produces. Lampredotto, ribollita, panzanella and bistecca are all dishes born from frugality and elevated by technique and quality local produce.
Understanding this philosophy makes the food taste better. When you bite into a lampredotto sandwich at Nerbone, you are eating something that market porters and leather workers have eaten for lunch in this same building for 150 years. That continuity is its own flavour.
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