Tripe and lampredotto are not just bovine offal: In Florence, they are almost an institution, a popular ritual, an early example of fast food that survives fashions. The Florentine tripe makers no longer have wooden carts mounted on a tricycle but they are still there, on board modern vans complying with hygiene rules. On the counter, you can find tripe and lampredotto (the fourth stomach of the bovine) already boiled and ready to be cooked. Next, on a stove, the lampredotto boils dipped in a fragrant broth of aromatic herbs, ready to be cut into pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper and placed inside a sandwich. Once, it used to be the breakfast of workers and market workers, but nowadays the lampredotto sandwich is appreciated and eaten by everyone: tourists, students, shop assistants, workers, professionals, and women out shopping. The tripe-makers stands are located throughout the city; to find them, it is sometimes enough to follow their scent.
