Loggia del Mercato Nuovo: Florence Travel Guide (4.3★)

A market hall with no walls

Florence has a lot of loggias, and this one is still used for what it was built for. The Loggia del Mercato Nuovo is a square Renaissance hall of round arches on stone columns, open to the street on all four sides. It stands where Via Porta Rossa meets Via Calimala, a few minutes’ walk south of Piazza della Repubblica.

Cosimo I de’ Medici commissioned it in the late 1540s, and Giovanni Battista del Tasso designed it. It was a “new” market compared with the Mercato Vecchio, which was cleared in the 19th century to make way for Piazza della Repubblica. The loggia first sheltered traders in silk, fine cloth and other luxury goods. Now the same arches cover rows of souvenir and leather stalls.

Most Florentines don’t call it by its official name. To them it is the Loggia del Porcellino, named after the bronze boar on its southern side.

Il Porcellino and the falling coin

The boar sits at the edge of the loggia facing Via Porta Rossa. His snout has been rubbed so often that it shines gold against the dark bronze of his body. Pietro Tacca cast the original fountain in the 17th century, copying a Hellenistic marble boar in the Medici collections. What you see today is a modern replica. Tacca’s bronze is kept indoors at the Museo Bardini, across the Arno.

The ritual is simple and people really do follow it:

• Rub the snout. The tradition says this means you will come back to Florence.
• Put a coin in the boar’s open mouth and let it go.
• Watch where it lands. It should fall through the grate below, which counts as good luck. If it bounces off, the wish doesn’t take.

The coins end up in the basin under the grate, and they are collected for charity. The water comes out of the boar’s mouth, so expect wet fingers.

The stone in the middle of the floor

Step in under the roof and look down. A round marble disc with a pattern like a cartwheel is set into the centre of the paving. It is called the pietra dello scandalo, the stone of scandal. It marks the spot where the carroccio stood, the war cart that medieval Florence took into battle.

The stone had a harsher job too. Bankrupt merchants and debtors were punished here with public humiliation. They were bared and slapped down onto the marble in front of the traders they owed. Nearly everyone walks straight across it without noticing. Stop for a moment and the old market’s rules start to feel much less abstract.

What the stalls sell now

The trade has changed. Where silk bolts were once laid out, you now find stacked leather goods, scarves, Florentine marbled paper, magnets and printed aprons. The stalls sit in close rows under the vault, so the aisles between them are narrow and people move through them slowly.

This is a souvenir market, not a craft workshop. Check labels and handle the leather before you buy, as you would at any tourist stall. Prices are not posted in one place. Each vendor sets their own, so ask at the stall. For Florentine leather you can compare, the San Lorenzo market streets north of the Duomo sell the same range at a larger scale.

The architecture is best seen after the vendors pack up. The stalls go away and you can finally see the column bases and the corner niches with their statues.

Getting to the boar’s nose first

The loggia is open every day from 9am to 6pm. The Sunday listing runs a few minutes past six. Because it is in the middle of the walking route between the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio, groups pour through it from mid-morning onwards.

On weekends the calmest time is 9am to 10am. Come then and the fountain is usually free, the aisles are clear, and you can find the marble disc without people walking over it. Later in the day a line forms at the snout. Most people wait politely, rub, drop their coin and move along.

Some tips for the moment itself:

• Hold your coin ready before your turn, so the people behind you aren’t kept waiting.
• Photos go faster when one person takes them and the rest step aside.
• The grate and paving around the fountain are often wet, so watch your footing.
• Keep your bag zipped and in front of you. This is one of the busiest pedestrian corners in the historic centre.

Bargaining is uncommon at the fixed souvenir stands and more normal for leather. Keep it friendly and short. Many vendors take cards, but it’s worth carrying some coins anyway, if only for the boar.

Twenty minutes, then walk on

You won’t need long here. Twenty minutes covers the ritual, the stone and a slow lap of the stalls. The loggia is better as a stop on a walk, and the streets around it make that easy.

• Palazzo Davanzati, a short walk west on Via Porta Rossa, shows how a wealthy merchant family lived in a medieval tower house.
• Orsanmichele, a few minutes north up Via Calimala, is the old grain hall turned church, with guild saints in its outside niches.
• Piazza della Signoria and the Palazzo Vecchio are just to the east.
• Ponte Vecchio is straight south down Via Por Santa Maria, a walk of about five minutes.
• Piazza della Repubblica is right at the top of Via Calimala, on the site of the old market that gave this one its “new” name.

Florence’s historic centre is best on foot. From Santa Maria Novella station it is roughly a fifteen-minute walk through the centre. If you are coming in on the airport tram, get off at Unità and walk south-east from there.