1848 - Plotting beneath the Offelleria della Meneghina
Beneath the Antica Offelleria della Meneghina in Vicenza, there is still the (now closed) cellar which the patriotic conspirators entered from a secret trap door behind the bar during the Austrian siege of 1848.
A jealously preserved letter from the Austrian period tells how, in 1848, “this centre of patriotism was closely watched by agents”, but the good landlord acted as look-out for the secret meetings for freedom. Garibaldi was one of its great aficionados, as was the celebrated writer Guido Piovene, a symbol of culture in Vicenza. It has preserved its traditional recipes and its splendid little rooms with their two-hundred-year-old interiors. In 1990, the building and its interiors were listed as historic treasures.
