This was one of my favorite places, as you might imagine. Deb and Randy, who are organic farmers on Randy’s grandfather’s farm, a Greensboro farm that is surrounded by subdivisions, accompanied us to Florence’s most famous food market. There are others that the locals frequent, I hear, and those will have to wait for the next time I visit Firenze.
We arose with dismay (at least in my case) at 10 a.m. The next time I travel, I’m definitely packing an alarm clock. But Deb and Randy had a breakfast delivered to their room and they were fine with our slow start to the day.
The Mercato Centrale is in a large building with more permanent vendors and cafes on the first floor and farmers on the second floor. This is the kind of market we hope to have in Greensboro one day, and Deb and Randy are ready to plan for it! We had a bite to eat at a cafe there, and I wandered around in bliss, snapping as many photos as I could. I could have easily spent several more hours in this market, and if it was not for worrying about refrigeration and customs, I could have gone deeply into debt.
Shall we go in?
You could buy all kinds of fresh seafood at the Mercato Centrale.
If I could have taken this cheese through my trip and then home, I would have emptied my bank account.
That is not somebody’s laundry in the case. It’s tripe.
I think that there must have been every kind of dried fruit imaginable here.
Real whole food.
Pasta and baked goods at a booth in the Mercato Centrale.
My memories are haunted by the cheese I left behind…
Clementines from Spain.
