New Market Loggia was built in the middle of the 16th century by Cosimo I de' Medici for the sale of silk and precious objects, while in the 1800s the famous Florentine straw hats boomed here. It was part of the series of specialized covered markets that had been designed by Vasari to favor the rational organization of the city's trade system. Unfortunately it will be hard to find something original among the stalls that are always popular with tourists today: it will all likely be a more or less kitsch souvenir, or a more or less genuinely Florentine leather object.
