The Basilica and the New Sacristy
San Lorenzo is the first of Brunelleschi's great Renaissance churches — a luminous, mathematically proportioned nave that established the template for a century of Florentine architecture. The Old Sacristy, at the left transept, was the first space Brunelleschi completed and the clearest demonstration of his system. The New Sacristy, accessible separately as part of the Cappelle Medicee ticket, is entirely different — designed and largely carved by Michelangelo as a funerary chapel for the Medici, its allegorical figures of Day and Night, Dawn and Dusk on the ducal tombs are among the most psychologically intense sculptures in the Western tradition.
The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Above the cloister of San Lorenzo, Michelangelo designed the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana for Pope Clement VII — a library to house the Medici's manuscript collection, which constitutes one of the most significant archives of ancient and medieval learning in the world. The vestibule staircase, with its triple flights and convex steps, is among Michelangelo's most spatially innovative designs. The reading room beyond is of a serene perfection. The library is open for visitors and, when special exhibitions are mounted, the manuscripts themselves are on display.
The Mercato Centrale
The covered Mercato Centrale on Via dell'Ariento has operated since 1874 in a cast- iron hall designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, who also built the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. The ground floor is a traditional food market — bread, charcuterie, cheese, tripe, wild mushrooms — that supplies much of the neighbourhood's domestic cooking. The upper floor was converted in 2014 into a food hall of prepared dishes, which is expensive by local standards but good for its kind. The ground floor is the better reason to come, and the lampredotto stall near the north entrance is one of the best in the city.
The Streets Around San Lorenzo
The market streets outside San Lorenzo — Via dell'Ariento, Via Panicale, Via Rosina — sell leather goods, silk scarves, and clothing in a dense outdoor bazaar that operates daily except Sunday. The quality varies enormously. The restaurants on the surrounding streets cater mainly to the market crowds and tend towards quantity over quality; exceptions exist but require local knowledge. The neighbourhood is best seen on a Saturday morning when the Mercato Centrale is at its most alive: vendors, household shopping, and the particular concentrated sociability of a city that still uses its markets seriously.
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