The historic Cafe Greco in Rome is highly recommended! Introducing the legendary cafe frequented by great writers and artists

In the 18th century, the Spanish Steps were sometimes called the "English Ghetto." This was because English gentlemen who came to Rome on the so-called "Grand Tour" preferred to stay at the luxury locandas near the Spanish Steps. As Dr. Johnson famously said, "A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see," travel to Italy was considered an essential education for a gentleman in 18th-century England, and there were even social clubs that made travel to Italy a condition for membership. Therefore, they spent a great deal of money to come to Italy. Needless to say, the main destination of the "Grand Tour" was Rome. (Omitted)

The English who came to Rome in the 18th century were not just "gentlemen" on a grand tour. For example, the painter Richard Wilson, Joshua Reynolds, and the architect Robert Adam visited Rome in the 1750s. Unlike artists from other countries, they did not play a significant role in the development of Roman art, but each of them succeeded in their home country with works that utilized what they had learned in Rome. Also, we cannot forget Edward Gibbon, famous for "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

The "cafe," a great creation of the 18th century, became a hangout and meeting place for foreign travelers, writers, and artists, including these English people. The oldest cafe in Rome was the Caffe del Veneziano, opened in 1725 in Piazza Sciarra, but the Caffe degli Inglesi at the Spanish Steps was famous for its interior decorated by Piranesi, who was widely known for his prints of ancient Roman ruins. This Caffe degli Inglesi was located at the corner of Via della Croce, which had the most hotels and restaurants in the area at the time, and as the name suggests, it was a cafe frequently visited by the English.

Unfortunately, most of these old cafes have disappeared with the passage of time. However, there is one cafe that is still doing business today just as it was in the past. That is the famous Cafe Greco at 86 Via dei Condotti.

Cafe Greco, or Greek Cafe, is a somewhat strange name, but it is a name given because this cafe was started by a man from Lepanto, Greece. Historical documents show that Cafe Greco was in the same location in the 1760s as it is now, meaning it has existed for over 200 years. Moreover, it is basically the same as it was in the past, and it is said that the only major difference between today's Cafe Greco and the one of the past is the addition of a bar counter at the entrance. The reason why this Cafe Greco is so famous is that it became a place of exchange for prominent modern foreigners, as well as Italian artists and writers.

Today, Cafe Greco has become a bit of a tourist attraction, and it is always crowded with tourists wanting to experience the atmosphere of the good old days. There are many foreigners, which is no different from the past, but the massification of tourism is overwhelming. No one is discussing art anymore. I also like the atmosphere of Cafe Greco, but I am usually satisfied with just drinking a cappuccino at the counter. If I were to meet someone, I would choose Babington's Tea Room, which is also historic and located next to the Spanish Steps.

Of course, Cafe Greco is worth entering at least once. The long, narrow room with a bench on one side, called the "Omnibus," and the slightly larger room in the back called the "Sala Rossa" (Red Room), which is covered with deep crimson wall fabric, are decorated in a neoclassical taste and convey the atmosphere of the good old days well.

Also, the walls are crowded with paintings, sculptures, portraits, and letters of artists associated with the cafe, and replicas of coffee cups from 1830 are displayed in a showcase. It feels like a small living museum. After all, there are relief portraits of Liszt and Berlioz, a statue of Mark Twain, a relief of Gabriele D'Annunzio, and even a portrait of Goethe and a letter from Andersen.

Andersen once rented a room above Cafe Greco with a travel companion, and he informed a friend about the state of the room with a drawing. According to him, the room had a carpet, landscape paintings of Rome and mirrors were hung on the walls, and roses and wallflowers were blooming on the balcony. And Andersen wrote that at dusk, he would light a four-armed lamp in addition to the candlesticks.

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Regarding this Caffe Greco, the painter Tischbein, who provided a room for Goethe, wrote that it was extremely convenient because German art lovers gathered there.

Also, the writer Moritz, whom Goethe favored and called a "rarely good person," noted in his memoirs that Caffe Greco was a meeting place for young artists when they visited villas and museums.

In contrast, while the name Caffe Greco does not appear in Goethe's "Italian Journey," it is easy to imagine that he frequented it with Tischbein and others. This is why the popular myth that "Iphigenie" was written at Caffe Greco is told so convincingly. However, it is hard to imagine Goethe working out poetic ideas or writing in a dim, noisy cafe.

Regardless, as these testimonies from Goethe's circle show, unlike the Caffe degli Inglesi, Caffe Greco was a place that Germans and Northern Europeans preferred to frequent. It is no wonder that the poet Wilhelm Heinsius jokingly referred to it as "Caffe Tedesco (German Cafe)" in a letter in 1783. The endless list of foreign customers at Caffe Greco, including Goethe, Thorvaldsen, Gogol, Schopenhauer, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Stendhal, Taine, Andersen, Liszt, Wagner, Anatole France, and Hawthorne, is dominated by Germanic figures.

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So, what kind of place was Caffe Greco in the old days? I would like to cite the testimonies of two Frenchmen as clues to understanding this.

First is Berlioz, who came to Rome in 1830 after winning the Prix de Rome. He says, "The famous Caffe Greco is certainly the most terrible tavern imaginable. It is dirty, dark, and damp. There is nothing to explain why artists of all nationalities living in Rome prefer to gather here." Of course, Berlioz himself was a regular at Caffe Greco, and it was at Caffe Greco that he became friends with Mendelssohn.

Next is the renowned art theorist Hippolyte Taine. In 1864, he wrote, "The long, narrow room is rather cheap, not elegant or grand, but it is quite comfortable. It is true that everything is very cheap, and a delicious cup of coffee is only three soldi." In short, the Caffe Greco of the golden age was not a high-class cafe, but a cafe used by artists and intellectuals of various countries as an affordable and convenient hangout.

Also, there was a period when this Caffe Greco became a base not only for foreigners but also for Italian writers like D'Annunzio and Pascarella. Considering this, in a different sense from the Colosseum or St. Peter's Basilica, Caffe Greco might be called a symbol of Rome, or rather, another symbol.

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