Caffè Florian
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"...the traveller will remember how the immense cluster of tables and little chairs stretches like a promontory into the smooth lake of the Piazza." Henry James
Caffè Florian, which is located on the south side of the Piazza San Marco, has been serving coffee since 1720, which makes it the oldest coffee shop in Italy and the second oldest coffee shop in the world. It first opened, with two simply furnished rooms, on December 29th, 1720, when it was called Alla Venezia Trionfante. It quickly became a very elegant establishment and came to be known as Caffè Florian, after its original owner, Floriano Francesconi. In 1858 the architect Ludovico Caldorin arranged the cafe into four rooms, each designed to resemble a drawing room and named after its décor. During the course of later restorations further rooms were added. When Florian's first opened, hot chocolate rather than coffee was the fashionable drink. It was a symbol of wealth and luxury and was drunk by ladies and gentlemen from across the world. Caffè Florian quickly grew in popularity, as it admitted both men and women, at a time when all the other coffee shops in Venice restricted access solely to men. Casanova, Lord Byron, Henry James and Marcel Proust were some of Florian's more famous clients. |
Caffe Florian
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