Spending time in historical cafés
Massimo Cerulo's book Andare per caffè storici, published by Il Mulino, is an informed and pleasant journey through the sites where, between the 18th and 19th centuries, in Italy just as in London, Vienna and Paris, a middle-class public opinion began the arise and situate itself at the heart of society while, sipping a hot drink, its representatives exchanged gossip and good ideas. The “historical cafés” are those that, still nowadays, preserve the old furnishings. Thus, amidst anecdotes and trivia, we go from the Florian in Venice to the Pedrocchi in Padua, from the Al Bicerin in Turin to the Tommaseo in Trieste, from the Antico Caffé Greco in Rome to the Gambrinus in Naples, and many more. “When you spend time in the old cafés, you learn how to tell a story”, loved to say Eduardo Galeano, a great Uruguayan writer. And this book proves him right.
Andare per caffè storici (Spending time in historical cafés)
Massimo Cerulo
Il Mulino, 2021