Florence Says No to 'Foreign' Food

If it’s not Italian and of high quality, it’s not going on the menu. So rules an unprecedented decision from Florence’s city council last week, stating that 70 percent of food sold in the Tuscan city’s UNESCO-protected historic center must be of local origin. In recent years, cheaper shops, restaurants and take-out places have proliferated across this dense cluster of micro-neighborhoods, selling food to tourists that’s relatively affordable but neither traditional to the area nor especially good quality. The result, the city council fears, is that Florence’s distinctive character is being diluted.

New rules obliging businesses to stick to local produce should boost the authentically Tuscan nature of what central Florence offers. It should also make food more expensive and more limited in range—and could create standards that local businesses worry are unworkable.