Food
Best Cheap Eats in Florence for Lampredotto, Schiacciata and Trattorias
Guide: Lampredotto, Schiacciata & Cheap Eats
Affordable Florence lives at tripe carts, sandwich windows, market counters, bakeries and no-nonsense trattorias. This shortlist favors specific local cooking, useful daytime hours and enough geographic range to escape the queues around one famous doorway.
- I FratelliniThis two-person wine-and-panino counter has occupied its narrow Via dei Cimatori doorway since 1875. Pick a numbered combination built from Tuscan ham, finocchiona, wild-boar salami, porchetta, pecorino or salsa verde, add a small glass of wine, and eat standing in the lane. The claimed business listing now closes an hour later on Saturday and Sunday than on weekdays.
- SemelMarco Paparozzi's tiny counter opposite Sant'Ambrogio market treats the panino as a daily special rather than a fixed formula. Fillings can run from braised donkey or wild boar to anchovy, pear and pecorino, served in small semelle rolls with a cheap glass of wine. There is no dependable first-party website, so the lunch-only schedule comes from current specialist and map evidence.
- I' Girone De' GhiottiThe queue descends into a small cellar because this shop fills warm schiacciata to order rather than preassembling it. Tuscan salumi, roast pork, pecorino, grilled vegetables and house spreads make the combinations substantial enough for lunch, while vegetarian builds are straightforward. Its own venue-managed page publishes an uninterrupted daily service, useful after Florence's traditional lunch shutters come down.
- All'Antico VinaioThe Mazzanti family's original Via dei Neri cluster is now a global brand, but this remains the Florence source for oversized schiacciate layered with Tuscan salumi, cheeses and creamy spreads. Several adjacent counters help move the famous line; skip peak lunch if queuing outweighs curiosity. The Florence page—not the older US page—publishes the current continuous daily hours.
- Da NerboneOperating in Mercato Centrale since 1872, Nerbone is the canonical stop for a bollito sandwich dipped in broth or lampredotto finished with salsa verde and chilli. Pasta, trippa and a changing hot plate make it more than a sandwich counter, but market rhythm rules: arrive before the lunch crush and do not confuse the ground-floor historic market hours with the upstairs food hall's late schedule.
- Tripperia PolliniSergio Pollini and his son work from a street cart near Sant'Ambrogio, chopping slow-cooked lampredotto into a crusty roll, dipping the top in broth and adding green sauce or chilli to order. Trippa is the other reason to stop. The family's own site gives a clear Monday-to-Saturday daytime window, so treat this as lunch, not a late-night snack.