Stories, events, deeds, and romance
With the thousands of years of service they have provided, the establishments of the Locali Storici d’Italia together form a most remarkable history book, in the pages of which we can find thousands of personalities, famous events, and facts known and unknown. But also love affairs, betrayals, gossip, and anecdotes. They have come down to us by word of mouth and through front-page headlines, or given immortality in the pages of books.
We have already unearthed countless stories, and others remain to be discovered, making this collection of stories, which have been jealously safeguarded by Italy’s oldest and most prestigious hotels, restaurants, cafés, pastry-shops, confectioners’ and grapperie, so vibrant and fascinating.
Sissi
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The ethereal, stunningly beautiful wife of Emperor Franz Joseph, Sissi was extraordinarily astute. Despite her apparent fragility, she enjoyed perfect health and travelled the length and breadth of Europe, always adored and revered by her subjects. This is how she is described by Karl Platino Junior, Onkel Taa, a refined and eminent collector of all things Hapsburg. During her travels, says Onkel Taa, Sissi loved to stop off at Bad Egart for a delightful sojourn with mineral-water therapy at the...
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The K. u. K. Museum
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Forty thousand items. Rare, unusual, antique. Period implements used by peasants and craftsmen in Val Venosta. Long-forgotten workplaces, furnishings, and collections of Tyrolese memories. But also furnishings and objects that once belonged to Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Sissi. This is the extraordinary K.u.K. Museum Bad Egart in Töll Parcines. An open-air museum of Tyrolean history set up in the historic fifteenth-century complex of the oldest and most famous spa town in Tyrol, where the...
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The "Ricordi Floor" at Villa d'Este
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The Grand Hotel Villa d’Este in Cernobbio opened to guests in 1873 and the first to step through the door was the publisher Giulio Ricordi, who took over an entire floor of the Regina d’Inghilterra wing for the whole season. Giuseppe Verdi was one of the publisher’s first guests, and he was followed by Giacomo Puccini.For generations the Ricordi family continued to spend their summer holidays on the shores of Lake Como and still today the floor in the Regina d’Inghilterra building is kno...
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Hollywood Festival
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From 1988 to 1992, the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este in Cernobbio was the venue for the Festival di Hollywood. Many famous actors and actresses turned up: Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly, June Allison, Joseph Cotten, and Claire Trevor, to name but a few.In the photos: the presidential suite and the cardinal’s suite were among the most coveted by the great names of show-biz and those who stopped off at Villa d’Este.
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Hitchcock and the Photographers
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The film director Alfred Hitchcock adored the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este in Cernobbio and used to spend his summer holidays here from 1925 – when he shot a short scene for his first feature film, The Pleasure Garden in the hotel park – until 1970. It is said he became absolutely paranoid whenever he saw a photographer. One day a fabulous wedding reception was put on at the hotel and, quite naturally, a number of photographers turned up for the occasion. Hitchcock was dining when they came in...
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Caffè Piccardo and Coppi's final sprint
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“Thirty seconds at the Turchino!” In sports cafés and balancing on windowsills to bring the news to those in the street below, radio sets blared out Coppi’s lead over the Frenchman Teisseire in the Milano-Sanremo. Thirty seconds had stretched into five minutes at the Voltri crossing. It was a hot March day in 1946. Italy longed for excitement and beauty to banish the lingering bitter aftertaste of war. The roar from the crowd that went up on either side of the ancient Via Aurelia seemed t...
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The debut of the Ussero
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The first rent contracts and private letters addressed to the aristocratic Agostini family that mention the presence of a café on the ground floor of their residence in Pisa dates back to the last quarter of the eighteenth century, but the name “Caffè dell’Ussero” first appears officially in a rent contract note dated 1 September 1775. It shows that the establishment was run by Carlo Pellizzoni of Parma. A copy of this document hangs in the premises, and it shows us how Count Cosimo Agos...
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A shot of grappa for D’Annunzio
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In the final years of the 1800’s the tumultuous romance between actress Eleonora Duse and writer Gabriele D’Annunzio brought them often to Asolo and Bassano del Grappa, and inevitably to Nardini, to have a drink at “ their table” in the back room in a quiet corner beside the fireplace.
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A sip of grappa for the Queen Mother
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The mother of Queen Elisabeth knew Nardini grappa and it was so loved that it was the only Italian hard liquor served at her daughter Queen Elisabeth II wedding. In 1987, the Queen Mother, who, passing by Nardini on an official visit, impelled her escort to take her inside. There she had a drink of her beloved grappa and signed the guestbook with the simple “Elisabeth R” and the date.
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The Bridge and its grappa
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In 1948, after the complete destruction of the Ponte Vecchio at the end of the second World War, the covered bridge in Bassano del Grappa was completely rebuilt with private funds collected by the Alpini soldiers. Alcide De Gasperi, the first Prime Minister of the Italian Republic, dedicated the bridge on October 8 with a bottle of Nardini grappa.
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A shot of grappa for Hemingway
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During WWI, Ernest Hemingway, while stationed as an ambulance driver at Villa Ca’ Erizzo on the banks of the Brenta, often came to Nardini Distillery in Bassano for a shot of grappa. Grappa also figures prominently in many of his works, especially those dealing with the war.In the photo: a very young Hemingway during WWI.
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The origins of the EU
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The international Pool of Coal and Steel Conference was held in the halls of the Grand Hotel Miramare in Santa Margherita in February 1951, with the Italian Prime Minister De Gasperi, the Foreign Minister Sforza, and the French Prime Minister Pleven and Foreign Minister Schuman. This meeting eventually led to what has become the European Union (EU).In the photo: the two prime ministers, De Gasperi and Pleven.
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The Negus's cushions
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In November 1970, the Grand Hotel Miramare in Santa Margherita welcomed the emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, as a guest during his official visit to Italy. To compensate for the small physical stature of the sovereign, two cushions – suitably hidden from visitors’ view – were placed on the armchair on which he sat to receive eminent members of Ligurian society.The visit by the Negus was of huge importance for Italy as it brought a breakthrough in the country’s political relations wit...
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Pirandello's veranda
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In October 1926 the playwright and writer Luigi Pirandello stayed in Pesaro, where he had been officially invited for the opening of the theatre-cinema named after the actress Eleonora Duse. He spent one week at the Hotel Vittoria: it is said he loved spending the afternoons on the lovely hotel veranda overlooking the sea, enjoying the view and taking notes.
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Casinò Vittoria
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During the Belle Epoque, the Hotel Vittoria in Pesaro had its own private, authorised casino, which was open both to its guests and to non-residents. It is still possible to admire the 50-, 100- and 500-lire chips that were used by illustrious gamblers to make their bets.
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Calcio di mulo
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In the late 1930s - early 1940s, the barman of the Hotel Vittoria in Pesaro, Alberto, created the celebrated and extremely hard-hitting “Calcio di mulo” – literally, the “mule’s kick” – based on dry vermouth, whisky and absinthe, which became a much-loved part of the legend and tradition of Pesaro.
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