Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio

This guide to the Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio in Florence traces the neighborhood market built in eighteen seventy-three, just after Florence lost its brief status as Italy's capital, and the architect Giuseppe Mengoni, who raised the same cast-iron-and-glass style here that he later used for the grander Mercato Centrale, this time built small on purpose. It follows how the market has stayed a place for locals rather than tourists, farmers driving in from the Tuscan hills, fishmongers naming the exact waters their catch came from. Listen for the everyday haggling over artichokes at the center of the hall.