Rome's Legendary Caffe Greco est. 1760 Fears Closure: Patrons From Dickens To Diana
'The most important people have been here': Rome's oldest cafe fears closure. Caffè Greco has welcomed patrons from Dickens to Diana – but a rent rise has put its future in doubt. The Guardian, Oct. 17, 2019.
Stellario Baccellieri has been Caffè Greco’s artist in residence for more than 40 years, capturing the conviviality of Rome’s oldest coffee bar on canvas every day and painting the portraits of its illustrious patrons. “I’ve seen everything and everyone,” he said on a recent visit by the Guardian, as he pointed towards a closed-off area where the Italian capital’s cultural and political elite would meet to debate in bygone times. “The most important people have been here … this place is not only a bar, it’s a museum.”
Baccellieri’s role and the fate of Caffè Greco, which opened in 1760 on the Via Condotti, close to the Spanish Steps, now hang in the balance as a date looms for the bar’s management company, Antico Caffè Greco, to leave the property.
Everyone from Charles Dickens, Henry James, Orson Welles and John Keats, who lived a stone’s throw away, to Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Lauren, Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana have passed through its doors. Memorabilia attests to the day in 1890 when Buffalo Bill swung by for coffee with a group of cowboys. Three hundred works of art hang on the bar’s burgundy walls.
Caffè Greco has weathered wars and countless political and economic upheavals, but a bitter financial dispute is testing its resilience. The issue began in September 2017, when Antico Caffè Greco’s lease expired and the property’s owner, the Israelite Hospital – a privately run hospital that operates within Italy’s public health system – wanted to raise the monthly rent from €18,000 to €120,000. A legal battle ensued and a judge eventually ruled that the management firm must vacate the property next Tuesday.
“The sentence is incomprehensible and the rent hike extortionate,” said Carlo Pellegrini, the owner of Antico Caffè Greco. “We would be ready to pay more rent to keep the cafe open but not six times the amount we’re paying now. I feel very angry, but we will fight this.” Italia Nostra, a heritage group, has joined the battle for the bar’s survival, organising a series of cultural events in the days leading up to the potential closure.
“The idea of Caffé Greco disappearing off the face of the Earth, from the memory of Rome residents and tourists who make a point of having a coffee there, is absolutely intolerable,” said Vanna Mannucci, the vice-president of Italia Nostra’s Rome unit. “I don’t care who earns how much, what matters for me is that this historic and cultural place remains.” Caffé Greco, its furnishings and artworks have been protected property since 1953, when the Italian government stipulated that regardless of who manages the premises, the bar must remain intact...
More, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/18/caffe-greco-rome-oldest-cafe-fears-closure
The café was named after its Greek (Greco in Italian) owner, who opened it in 1760. Historic figures including Stendhal, Goethe, Arthur Schopenhauer, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Mariano Fortuny, Byron, Franz Liszt, Keats, Henrik Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Felix Mendelssohn, Wagner, Levi, María Zambrano and even Casanova have had coffee there. Today Caffe Greco remains a haven for writers, politicians, artists and notable people in Rome...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antico_Caff%C3%A8_Greco
