At lunchtime outside of Florence’s tourist-filled Mercato Centrale, locals line up to bite into a native delicacy, but it’s not what you think. Forget about plates of sizzling oven-fresh pizza, and wipe images of home-cooked pasta from your mind. In this Tuscan town, tripe is king of street food.

Beatrice Trambusti has been selling hot trippa and lampredotto—the first and fourth stomach of the cow, respectively—from her kiosk, Lupen e Margo, for 30 years. But the Florentine appetite for tripe dates back much earlier than even Trambusti can attest to. Its history begins in the 15th century, when the poorest Florentines could only afford leftover cuts of meat.

Today tripe is no longer peasants’ fare; lampredotto stands