Florence: Local Market Tour + Cooking Class with Lunch

About Florence: Local Market Tour + Cooking Class with Lunch

This Florence experience is a four-hour culinary programme combining a guided local market visit with a hands-on cooking class and a sit-down lunch of the dishes prepared. It runs three times a week from Piazza di San Lorenzo, one of the city's oldest market squares, placing participants at the centre of Florentine food culture from the outset.

The session covers four categories of traditional Italian cooking: appetisers, handmade pasta with sauce, a meat and vegetable-based main, and dessert. Instruction is led by local chefs who guide the group through technique and ingredient selection, making the class suitable for cooks of most skill levels.

What to expect

The programme opens with a shopping session at a local market, where participants select fresh produce alongside the chef. This stage introduces the seasonal and regional logic behind Florentine cooking before any preparation begins. Once back in the kitchen, the group works through each of the four dishes in sequence, with the chefs demonstrating and assisting throughout.

Lunch follows the cooking session and consists of the dishes made during the class, served with water and wine. Booking covers the full four hours, the cooking lesson with local chefs, and the market visit. Hotel pickup and drop-off are not included, and the starting point at 9 Piazza di San Lorenzo is accessible by public transport from the city centre.

Florence Cooking Classes and getting there

The class is hosted by Florence Cooking Classes, located at Piazza di San Lorenzo, a square that has served as a market hub since the 19th century and sits adjacent to the Basilica di San Lorenzo. The venue is within walking distance of Santa Maria Novella station. For more options in the area, browse things to do in Florence to plan the rest of your visit around this half-day programme.