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Antico Forno Giglio

photo: Dario Garofalo

November 20, 2023

The best bakeries in Florence where to buy bread, pizza and schiacciata

The unmissable addresses to taste the most delicious specialties in town

Bread, pizzas, schiacciate con l'olio. Florence keeps up the tradition of baking and does so especially with historic ovens. Small stores where, as soon as you enter, you can breathe in the fragrant smell of still-warm bread.

In Tuscany, bread is strictly without salt or "sciocco" - a Tuscan term that probably derives from the Latin exsuccus, "without juice, without sauce". Everything makes sense. But why in Tuscany bread is without salt? Legend has it that in 1100 A.D. the enemy Pisa blocked the sale of salt in the hinterland, so Florentine bakeries invented bread without salt.

Since then, they have never stopped making loaves and loaves of bread, and today we want to take you with us to the best bakeries in Florence, where you can find not only unsalted bread but also excellent pizza and schiacciata. Are you intolerant to gluten? Click here to discover bakeries, ice cream parlors, pizzerias and restaurants that are right for you! Besides bread and schiacciata, do you have a sweet tooth? Come with us to discover the pastry shops not to be missed in Florence and perfect places for your breakfast!

Forno Palatresi

Antico Forno Giglio
Via Vincenzo Gioberti, 151/r
ph. +39 055 244402

This small bakery has been baking bread, pizzas and focaccia for seventy years. Almost a local institution, a cult destination for some specialties. At the top of the list is the Catalana, a rustic flat bread, kneaded and rolled out by hand, baked directly on the oven stone. Then there is afternoon bread, the result of a long, very slow leavening process and another secret that Dario Landi is careful not to reveal. Finally, the bread with natural leavening, white, whole wheat or with stone-ground flour 2.

Antico Forno Giglio

Antico Forno Guasti
Via del Ponte Alle Riffe, 15/r
ph. +39 055 583923

Those who love schiacciata cannot miss it, the Antico Forno Guasti is a hidden gem enclosed within the city. Outside the historical center, this small bakery has been run by the Mocarini family for more than thirty years and continuously bakes one of the best schiacciate all'olio of the area, along with pizza by the slice and bread, of different types and flours, up to the typical Florentine biscuits. Everything is made exclusively by hand.

Antico Forno Guasti

Bottega Artigiana del Gusto
Via Erbosa, 12r
ph. +39 055 685702

Bottega Artigiana del Gusto is specialized in gluten free bakery and pastry, but it also offers gluten free menus for lunch or appetizers. From Tuscan appetizers, to classic first courses, through seconds, side dishes, pizzas and desserts. All gluten free but without sacrificing taste.

Bottega Artigiana del Gusto

Forneria
Via de' Bardi, 54r

A side project of Florentine entrepreneur Tommaso Grasso, owner of the Golden View restaurant, and manager Paolo Miano, the Forneria is a reference point for a demanding clientele on the bakery front. In addition to genuine, artisanal breads and three types of desserts-Sicilian cannoli, baba with Chantilly cream and ricotta cake-in the Forneria's showcase we also find pizza, the queen of all doughs embellished with the know-how of the two Campanian chefs Antonio Avino and Gennaro Ruggiero. One can see the preparation in real time and taste it even at dinner, perhaps right after some of the delicious entrées to which the restaurant from the beautiful view of the Arno has accustomed us by now.

Forneria

C.BIO
Via della Mattonaia, 3A
ph: +39 055 247 9271

"Good Food, Honest Italian". This is the organic food store in Via della Mattonaia owned by Florentine chef Fabio Picchi, who has created a true empire of taste in his home town of Sant'Ambrogio. In the oven of the C.BIO bakery, bread rises every day, schiacciate (flat bread) is baked, and sweet and savory things are prepared. In the gastronomy counter there are always pots, pans and trays of food ready and cooked according to the season and tradition: from zucchini to boiled potatoes to dishes of Artusi's memory, from Russian salads to good stewed Mugello chickens, from tuna-cooked veal to chicken galantine and the ever-present lasagna and eggplant parmigiana.

C.Bio

Cantinetta dei Verrazzano
Via dei Tavolini, 18-20/r
ph. +39 055 268590

Products mainly at km0 - coming from the farm of Castello da Terrazzano in Greve in Chianti or from neighboring farms. In this bakery (also a wine shop where you can have lunch and dinner) owned by a well-known family of winemakers who took over the old Forno Semellino some years ago, bread, focaccia, cecine, castagnacci, rustic cookies made with selected flours, sourdough and extra virgin olive oil from Chianti are baked every day. There is also a coffee counter for breakfast.

Cantinetta da Verrazzano

Chicco di grano
Inside Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio
ph. + 39 055 240616

Inside the Sant'Ambrogio market, it's hard not to find it, just follow the smell of bread and pizzas that this stall churns out continuously. If you go there at lunchtime, opt for schiacciata vuota or pizza by the slice, topped either with mozzarella and tomato or, the best, just with big pieces of tomato. But the real specialties are the coccoli, balls of fried bread dough to eat with ham and stracchino cheese, because here the business also offers a double fry service (a Florentine tradition, now lost).

Chicco di grano

Forno Palatresi
Borgo Ognissanti, 102r
ph +39 055 294969

A reference point for artisan sourdough bread since 1957. Stop here for the schiacciata alla casalinga (made with Tuscan bread dough, seasoned with oil and salt at the end of cooking), the soft genovese or the ramerino bread, one of the best in town. Excellent is also the proposal of small pastries, with a wide range of typical sweets related to the various holidays. The bakery also carries on the ancient tradition of cooking chickpeas and beans. Stop here also for a light lunch.

Forno Palastresi

Forno La Pagnotta
Borgo La Croce, 109/r
ph. +39 055 2479362

Not to be missed, for anything in the world, is the schiacciata con l'uva (from May to October), sweet, soft and dripping with sweet juice. But this bakery near the market of Sant'Ambrogio is very popular with Florentines in the neighborhood because the bread is also very good, produced with an assortment of 40 types: not to be missed the Tuscan loaf and the bozza, both without salt and with flours ground by mills in Casentino. And then crushed, hand-rolled breadsticks, special breads (even for celiacs). 

Forno La Pagnotta

Forno Becagli 
Borgo Ognissanti 92/r
ph.  + 39 055 215065

The Becagli bakery is a family story. Open since 1909, they are known above all for their refined pastries: ricciarelli, panforti, oven-baked cakes, cenci and fritters that cannot be missed, to be enjoyed following the rhythm of the seasons.  But the goodness of this small bakery of 12 square meters where 11 people work does not end here: 30 types of bread of different sizes and ingredients, a crushed oil that comes out hot several times a day, the real Tuscan bread. Our pride and joy is being the supplier of the best bars in Florence and prestigious places like the Gucci

Forno Becagli


Pugi
Piazza San Marco, 9/b - ph. +39 055 280981
Via San Gallo 62/r - ph. +39 055 475975
Via G.Orsini 63-65 - ph. +39 055 689763
Via Anton Francesco Doni 10 - ph. +39 055 364179
Viale Edmondo de Amicis 49 - ph. +39 055 669666

The largest Florentine bakery for bread and its surroundings. There are five Pugi ovens dotting the city. Since 1925 Pugi is a guarantee of excellence, with its products always fresh, sweet and savory. The selection of raw materials, olive oil and seasonal vegetables, arrive fresh every morning in the laboratories. Taste the always hot schiacciata all'olio, at carnival time the typical ciambella, the schiacciata con l'uva and finally the bread, of every type and with the use of the best flours. 

Forno Pugi

S.forno
Via Santa Monaca, 3r
ph: +39 055 239 8580

Among the streets of Oltrarno we find S.Forno, the historic bakery of the district with over 150 years of activity that has been taken over by the members of Santo Bevitore. A modern bakery furnished with care, halfway between an old store and a French boulangerie, where you can buy bread and schiacciata but also where you can stop for breakfast or a snack. The fresh bread is displayed in wicker baskets, while the wooden furniture houses jars of preserves, packages of homemade pasta and homemade juices. A real gem.

S.forno

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