Nine literary cafés to visit in Italy

Caffè Florian, Venezia
"Although it opened in France, the first literary café in Europe was the endeavor of an Italian man: young Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, from Sicily, opened Le Café Procope in Paris in 1686. The Procope was located opposite the Comédie Française theater, which had been built only a few years earlier, and soon became one of the centers of the Ville Lumière’s political life, as well as a favorite meeting point for intellectuals of the Enlightenment and leading figures of the French Revolution, from Marat to Danton, from Robespierre to Diderot, from D’Alembert to Mirabeau. Italy’s own tradition of literary cafés – where the cultural and social destiny of the Old Continent was written – began in the 18th century. That is when cafés provided a jolt of caffeine to the revolutions of the century, and became intellectuals’ and patriots’ tribunes, schools, theaters, libraries, political headquarters, and literary salons. ..."
Italian Ways