Nerbone

Nerbone is a long-standing stall at street level inside Mercato Centrale, and its fame rests on the lampredotto panino, the sandwich Florence counts as its signature street food. The lampredotto is stomach cooked slowly with herbs, cut with care and packed into a semella roll that has been dipped in its broth. Bollito and peposo come out of the same kitchen and get equally serious treatment.

Florentines suggest turning up early and asking for your lampredotto panino with more salsa verde than usual and a little peperoncino. While it is assembled, keep your eyes on the counter: the upper half of the roll is plunged into the broth before the sandwich is shut, and that soaked bread is what lifts a great lampredotto above a merely good one.