Florence certainly isn’t one of the first locations that comes to mind when I think of vegan-friendly getaways, nor, to be frank, Italy as a whole. But I was pleasantly surprised by some of the vegan food I ate there this summer.
I stayed in the city for around a month in total and gradually made my way around all the fully vegan spots (of which there are only a handful), as well as many of the vegan-friendly establishments.
During this time, I discovered some firm favourites. These include a mix of fully vegan restaurants and some vegan-friendly establishments, where you can enjoy pizza, paninis, gelato, pastries, and more. If none of these tickle your fancy, check out the ‘Other vegan food’ at the bottom!
I also stayed at the nearby vegan hotel, Agrivilla i Pini, which was incredible. If this sounds like your kind of thing, make sure to read my review.
Best vegan food in Florence
Have a scroll through all my favourite vegan and vegan-friendly spots across Florence, Italy. I have placed all 100% vegan spots at the top of the list and marked which are vegan and which are vegan-friendly. Enjoy eating your way around Florence!
Tripperia Vegana TAN8
- Type: 100% vegan
- Location: Chiosco Volante al secondo piano, Viale Alessandro Guidoni
- Cuisine: Paninis (traditional Italian sandwiches)
- Dish recommendation: TAN8 (Lampredotto vegano)
If the thought of a delicious vegan Italian sandwich isn’t enough to pull you away from Florence city centre, then the experience of ordering from Tripperia Vegana TAN8 should be.
You first need to order online (I recommend doing this as you make your way there), and then you wait by the bus stop outside the building for them to drop your order down in a basket from their balcony. It is a truly fun and magical experience, watching the smiles of both the chef and the customers as their food drops down from the sky.
Even if it is the experience that got you there, it is the sandwiches (panini in Italian) that will leave you with a huge smile on your face.
They offer a variety of fillings, made using mushrooms. They are all pretty meaty and packed full of flavour. My favourite is the TAN8, a vegan take on the popular Lampredotto, a popular Florentine dish made with cow’s stomach, often dipped in broth and served with salsa verde. You can also order a delicious gianduja ice cream dessert and soft drinks.
Cortese Cafe
- Type: 100% vegan
- Location: Piazza di Santa Maria Novella and Via de’ Giucciardini
- Cuisine: Pastries and gelato
- Dish recommendation: Pistachio gelato (gianduja gelato is also amazing)
Out of all the fully vegan spots in Florence, Cortese Café is the one I frequented the most. They have two establishments, both very central, serving up delicious gelato, pastries, and hot drinks.
Many gelaterias in Florence offer vegan-friendly options, but these are often restricted to fruit-based sorbets. And if you are craving something creamy, chocolately or nutty, then you will want to try the gelato at Cortese Café. Not to mention that it is also great to support fully vegan businesses!
My two favourite gelato flavours of theirs are pistachio and gianduja, which I always order together. But don’t worry, if you do enjoy fruit-based gelato, they have plenty of other options. I also really enjoy their selection of raw desserts, including their raw pistachio dome.
Their Piazza di Santa Maria Novella establishment has plenty of indoor and outdoor seating, with a side room that is remote work-friendly.
Nirvana Veg
- Type: 100% vegan
- Location: Via Il Prato
- Cuisine: Italian
- Dish recommendation: Carbonara with truffles
Nirvana Veg is the perfect vegan spot for trying out Italian dishes you’d find in non-vegan spots across the city.
Their menu follows a traditional Italian structure, with Antipasti (small starters), Primi (pasta, soup, or risotto dishes), Pizza (in their case, Pinsa, a Roman-style pizza), Secondi (protein-based mains, here mostly made with seitan), and Dolci (desserts).
I really enjoyed their carbonara with truffle, which had a good amount of truffle flavour. And the vegan lasagna was also the best I’d tasted in the city.
You get served a basket of bread on the side, plus a vegan parmesan. Which helps add to the Italian charm! For dessert, they also have a tiramisu as well as some tortas.
Il Vegano
- Type: 100% vegan
- Location: 43, Via S. Gallo
- Cuisine: Italian
- Dish recommendation: Tiramisu
Il Vegano is a small vegan bistrot serving up vegan Italian dishes at affordable prices, using organic ingredients with gluten-free options.
The menu is quite small in comparison to other restaurants, which I like. Dishes include melanzane parmigiana, trofie pasta with pesto, and risotto. My personal favourite main dish is their lasagna (although I preferred the lasagna from Nirvana Veg).
I also thoroughly enjoyed their tiramisu. The portion size was amazing, and the flavours were all spot on. I would go back just to eat that!
They offer a variety of wines and beers, which are also pretty affordable. Plus, they have both indoor and outdoor seating.
Santo Falafel
- Type: 100% vegan
- Location: Via Santa Monaca
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Dish recommendation: Falafel wrap
If you need a break from Italian food, then head on over to Santo Falafel, a fully vegan Middle Eastern fast food spot. Their main product offering is falafel, served as is or in a wrap, and I’m a huge fan of both the texture and flavour.
In addition, they have a variety of salad bowls, including tabbouleh and fattoush, hummus, babaganoush, pita, and sweet treats like baklava.
I really enjoy their wraps with falafel. They are made with salad, a tahini sauce and hummus. They are pretty big and filling, so perfect for a full lunchtime meal. I also like their traditional plates, particularly their mixed plates where you can enjoy kibbeh, mujaddara, and more.
ORA – Ristorante Vegetariano
- Type: Vegetarian
- Location: Via S. Zanobi
- Cuisine: Italian
- Dish recommendation: Pesto gnocchi
ORA is a slightly more upmarket Italian restaurant. It is organic and vegetarian, but with a large vegan selection. For example, when I visited, over half of the menu was suitable for vegans.
It is a beautiful space with a great wine list – we enjoyed a beautiful orange wine with dinner. You can see they put a lot more effort into the plating of their dishes, and the service matches the quality of the food.
I thoroughly enjoyed my pesto gnocchi, which was served with a cashew cream. It is packed full of flavour and was creamy and rich. They served us a small amuse-bouche before our meal and a basket of bread, with a nice variety of breads to try!
Su Guan Veg
- Type: Vegetarian (one non-vegan dish on the whole menu)
- Location: Via della Scala
- Cuisine: Asian (predominantly Chinese)
- Dish recommendation: Kimchi pancakes
Su Guan Veg is a vegetarian Chinese restaurant with a good variety of dishes, including a few spicy Szechuan dishes. It is predominantly Chinese, but you will find a few other Asian cuisines in the mix.
Their menu is completely vegan, bar one vegetarian dish – a pancake made with eggs. They also have kimchi pancakes, which are completely vegan and super tasty. They are my favourite thing to order from Su Guan!
They don’t hold back on the spice levels, which I love. But you can also ask for things to be less/not spicy.
You’ll find a mixture of dishes, from noodles and rice to stir-fried seitan and dim sum.
Pizzium
- Type: Vegan-friendly
- Location: Piazza del Carmine
- Cuisine: Italian (pizza)
- Dish recommendation: Calabria (ordered with vegan mozzarella)
During my time in Florence, I ate at a lot of pizza restaurants. I was on a mission to find the best vegan pizza that Florence had to offer. And well, I found it. At Pizzium!
The dough was perfectly chewy and with just the right thickness for me. The toppings were incredibly flavourful, and the vegan almond mozzarella was amazing. It had melted perfectly, with a slight stringiness to it, and tasted really creamy.
They have a vegan margarita and a vegan calabria pizza. I ordered the latter and asked for the vegan mozzarella to be added on top. It came with a delicious calabrese pepper sauce drizzled on top. Alongside the amazing pizza dough and good quality vegan cheese, it was an absolute winner!
Not to mention that this was one of the only pizza places in Florence with pizzas marked as vegan. Which made me feel a lot more comfortable when ordering. Typically, most pizza restaurants just have a list of pizzas and the option to swap for vegan mozzarella.
Alibi
- Type: Vegan-friendly
- Location: Via Faenza
- Cuisine: Craft beer and junk food (burgers, etc.)
- Dish recommendation: Beyond burger
If you are after some refreshing local craft beer and some hearty junk food, then head to Alibi. They serve animal products, but have a vegan section on their menu with a variety of dishes.
You can choose from burgers, wraps, popcorn chicken, and fries. The food isn’t necessarily anything special, but it tastes good and is filling. Plus, it goes down nicely with a beer (make sure to ask about ingredients for each beer).
It is predominantly a craft beer pub, so it is a lot more of a casual eatery. But they do have plenty of indoor seating with tables.
Edoardo il Gelato Biologico
- Type: Vegan-friendly
- Location: Piazza del Duomo and Ponte Vecchio
- Cuisine: Gelato
- Dish recommendation: Dark chocolate gelato
Edoardo il Gelato Biologico is a popular gelateria located in two of the main popular tourist spots, by the duomo and the ponte vecchio. Perfect if you are after some refreshing gelato as you wander the beautiful streets of Florence, taking the sights in.
They have a large selection of vegan-friendly gelatos, the majority of which are sorbets. Included in this are the classics, like mango and lemon. But you will also find some other flavours like red wine sorbet and dark chocolate.
I find some a little on the sweet side, so I wouldn’t want a huge tub. Two flavours in the small tub are just perfect for me!
Brunch Republic
- Type: Vegan-friendly
- Location: Viale Giacomo Matteotti
- Cuisine: Brunch and burgers
- Dish recommendation: Vegan kebab burrito
Brunch Republic is a, you guessed it, brunch restaurant with a good selection of vegan dishes. They are a little out of the city centre, but you can find them on Deliveroo.
Their brunch menu includes dishes like vegan salmon avocado toast, pancakes, and cocktails to go with them. They also have a vegan burger and a vegan kebab burrito (pictured above).
Vegan dishes are clearly labelled on the menu and I find some of the dishes to be quite fun and different – definitely not an after thought!
Other vegan food
I’ve mentioned my favourite vegan-friendly food spots in Florence, but if you are after something else, like cooking ingredients, pastries to take on your train journey to Pisa, or more vegan-friendly pizza options, then you may be interested in some of these:
- Supermarkets: I found a lot of vegan options in the large Esselunga supermarkets, including vegan pastries, cheeses (my favourite being Dream Farm), fake meats, and plenty of useful cooking ingredients. Carrefour also has plenty of options.
- Train station: The main train station in Florence (Santa Maria Novella) has a plethora of cafes, many of which have vegan options. I was able to find a vegan Planted sandwich in one of the cafes (Panella), and La Feltrinelli has vegan pastries and baked goods (croissants and cakes), oat milk for coffees, and a vegan sandwich.
- Pizza: There are plenty of pizza places in Florence, but not many offer vegan cheese. That being said, there are some great options dotted around the city, including SimBIOsi, Pizzium (mentioned above), Pizzeria Giovanni Santarpia, New Bridge Pizza Club, and Mister Pizza.
100% vegan hotel near Florence! If you are looking for a relaxed getaway in a fully vegan hotel, then make sure to check out Agrivilla i Pini. It is located just 50 minutes away from Florence in the Tuscany countryside. Read my Agrivilla i Pini review to find out more.
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