The Antico Caffè Greco (pronounced [anˈtiːko kafˌfɛ ɡˈɡrɛːko]; transl. "Old Greek Café"), sometimes simply referred to as Caffè Greco, is a historic landmark café which opened in 1760 on Via dei Condotti no.86 in Rome, Italy. It is the oldest bar in Rome and second oldest in Italy, after Caffè Florian in Venice.

Ludwig Passini - Cafe Greco in Rome
Caffè Greco

History

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It was opened in 1760 by Nicola di Madalena or Della Maddalena, an Italo-Levantine (member of the Italian community in Anatolia, today Turkey).[1]

Historic figures including Stendhal, Goethe, Arthur Schopenhauer, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Mariano Fortuny, Byron, Georges Bizet, Hector Berlioz, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Keats, Henrik Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Felix Mendelssohn, James Joyce, Gabriele D'Annunzio, François-René de Chateaubriand, Orson Welles, Mark Twain, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Nikolaj Vasil'evič Gogol', Edvard Grieg, Antonio Canova, Harriet Hosmer, Giorgio De Chirico, Guillaume Apollinaire, Charles Baudelaire, Wagner, Levi, María Zambrano, Lawrence Ferlinghetti,[2] and even Casanova have had coffee there.[3][4] Cyprian Norwid was described as one of the cafe's regulars.[5]: 269 

For more than two centuries and a half, the Caffè Greco has remained a haven for writers, politicians, artists and notable people as Georgios Paganelis in Rome.[6] However, in 2017, the owner of the building asked for a raise of its monthly rent from the current 18.000 to 120.000 Euros.[7] As of 23 October 2019, despite being protected by the Department of Beni Culturali, the café is under the risk of closing due to the expiration of its rental contract.[citation needed]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bertotto, Giulia (9 June 2021). "L'antico Caffè Greco: da D'Annunzio a Orson Welles: il più antico "bar" intellettuale di Roma" [Antico Caffè Greco from D'Annunzio to Orson Welles: the oldest intellectual "bar" in Rome] (in Italian). Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  2. ^ "Around Italy in 7 historic coffee bars | Bar/Club Review | Rome | TheCoffeeLocator.com". Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  3. ^ Antico Caffè Greco | Bar/Club Review | Rome | Frommers.com
  4. ^ Cronin, Patricia, 25. Moving Mountains: Harriet Hosmer’s Nineteenth-Century Italian Migration to Become the First Professional Woman Sculptor In: Women and Migration: Responses in Art and History. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2019 (generated 13 octobre 2022) <http://books.openedition.org/obp/8080> ISBN 9791036538070
  5. ^ Milosz, Czeslaw (24 October 1983). The History of Polish Literature, Updated Edition. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-04477-7.
  6. ^ Antico Caffe Greco | Rome Sights Archived 2 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "'The most important people have been here': Rome's oldest cafe fears closure". The Guardian. 18 October 2019.
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41°54′20″N 12°28′53″E / 41.905558°N 12.481436°E / 41.905558; 12.481436