In 1820, there was a famous episode of goliardery at the Caffè dell’Ussero in Pisa, which was described by Ersilio Michel in Maestri e scolari dell’Università di Pisa nel Risorgimento nazionale (Sansoni, 1949). A certain Ricci, a student from Livorno, stood up on a table and read out a witty satire in sextains, poking fun at the more polite and moderate students: he imagined them forming their own monarchic government, with the King granting them court appointments and instituting a Chival...

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Closed in 1979 upon the death of Irma Marescotti, the Liquoreria Pasticceria Marescotti Cavo in Genoa remained sealed, quite literally, for almost thirty years. In 2006, Alessandro Cavo obtained permission from the Marescotti estate to reopen the establishment. When he and the heirs pulled up the shutters for inspection, they found everything frozen in time: shelves, showcases, furnishings, bottles, glasses, containers, even notepads with jottings – everything was just waiting, in perfect orde...

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These undoubtedly include Goethe, who was a guest in countless historic places during his “Travels in Italy”, D’Annunzio who, with or without Eleonora Duse, left a trail of broken hearts and unpaid bills behind him, and Ernest Hemingway, a faithful patron of so many bars in historical places, including that of the legendary Hotel delle Poste in Cortina d’Ampezzo. 

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Incredible! In spite of its fast-paced business life, Milan leads the way with 16 historical establishments, followed by the more traditional Venice with 14, Turin with 13, Rome with 12, Florence with 9 and Naples with 8. 

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Caffè Lavena in Venice, under the old “procuratie” in Piazza San Marco, literally goes under every time high water hits the city.

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Hotel Eden in Rome, with the splendid terrace where Federico Fellini liked to set his interviews; Sofitel Boston, also in Rome, where the film director went to a seventh-floor suite to have his palm read and his fortune told by an Indian who came especially to see him; Grand Hotel, Rimini, which he loved so much that he set some scenes of his masterpiece Amarcord there; Gran Caffè Schenardi in Viterbo, where he used to enjoy time with Alberto Sordi while shooting Vitelloni. 

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Gran Caffè Gambrinus, Naples: the family struggled for almost 30 years to get back a section which, in 1938, was turned into a bank after a senior Fascist official asked the prefect to close it because the noise downstairs disturbed his wife’s bridge sessions. Alberto Savinio, De Chirico’s brother, wrote in the Omnibus weekly that “the air of Naples is fatal for the best cafés, just as roses are fatal to donkeys”, and the regime ordered the publication to be closed down too. In 2001 th...

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Caffè Gilli in Florence, where Prezzolini used to meet the editors of his La Voce literary journal from 1908 to 1916; Caffè Mangini in Genoa, which after the last war became the field office for the editorial staff of Il Secolo XIX and Il Lavoro, with legendary directors like Cavassa and Pertini. 

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In the 1930s, the Ambrosiana-Internazionale team, with Castellazzi, Alemandi, De Manzano, Meazza, Faccio, Levratto, Bitto, Agosteo, Cerasoli, Frione and Serantoni, felt at home in Ristorante Boeucc, in Milan. 

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Caffè Pasticceria Stoppani in Bari has Italy’s oldest patents royal as official supplier to the Royal Household. It is issue no. 2, dated 1865. Those who obtained one could not only boast the title, but also place the Savoy crest on their packages and products. 

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A journey through film curios for cinema lovers. The Excelsior Palace Hotel in Rapallo was the set for some of the first external film shoots with Battesimo di Nave (1914), played and directed by Giano Paolo Rosmino, a historic name in Italian cinema. For the now virtually lost film Vita Futurista, the brainchild of Marinetti, the father of Futurism, and the painter Balla, amongst others, Arnoldo Ginna chose Caffè Ristorante La Loggia in Florence, in the summer of 1916, as the set for the scene...

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Trattoria Bagutta in Milan is one of just three restaurants in the world that are home to a literary award of national renown. Hotel Principe di Piemonte in Viareggio gave birth to the famous “Premio Viareggio”. 

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Sandri in Perugia and Stoppani in Bari are the last two historical pastry shops still run by the heirs of the over 100 Swiss pastry cooks who came down to Italy in the nineteenth century to seek their fortune and open kitchens and shops that became legends in their own right. Both the owners come from Sent, in the Canton of Grisons, and now represent the fifth generation of the founders. 

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Hotel Excelsior in Via Veneto, Rome, the legendary venue of the Sixties where the “paparazzi” started out from on their sorties to capture the stars of Hollywood. Hotel Sofitel Boston, just round the corner from Via Veneto, where in those years many stars and their lovers would seek refuge in incognito – though they also had a suite at the Excelsior – to escape those devilish photographers. 

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The Bellevue Syrene, Excelsior Vittoria, Imperial Tramontano and Royal hotels in Sorrento, with breathtaking views of the Gulf of Naples.

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Hotel Regina in Vienna, next to the Votive Church which Francesco Giuseppe had built after he escaped an assassination attempt; Hotel Sole Paradiso, in San Candido Innichen, in the province of Bolzano, which has a bust of Francesco Giuseppe in the hall; the Ristorante Museum Stube Bagni Egart in Töll Parcines, in the province of Bolzano, which has dedicated a hall to the Habsburg and which, every five years, celebrates the birthday of Francesco Giuseppe with an “imperial” evening. 

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Grand Hotel Villa d’Este at Cernobbio, in the province of Como, where in 1933 after long and shrewd waiting, press photographer Fedele Toscani (father of Oliviero) managed to capture the romance between Bessie Wallis Warfield, better known as Wallis Simpson, and Edward VIII, who shortly afterwards gave up the throne of England so that he could marry her. 

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Caffè Fantoni in Villafranca, Verona, where the owner created something to celebrate every illustrious enterprise. To name but one: “l’Acqua di Fiume” – Fiume (“river”) Water – to honour D’Annunzio. 

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