8 Historic Italian coffee house

Figure _unit3.9.1 Figure 5 Caffè Greco, Roma

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Photo of a room of the Caffè Greco, with a gentlemen sitting on a red-covered bench seating reading a paper. There are paintings and mirrors on the walls and small round marble-topped tables.

Figure 5 Caffè Greco, Roma

The history of the Gran Caffè in Italy goes back to the introduction of coffee into Europe in the early seventeenth century. The first European coffee houses were established in Venice, a centre of trade between Italy and the East. The coffee houses were a meeting place for intellectuals and artists, and often became cultural landmarks. A few famous examples are the Gran Caffè Gambrinus in Naples (1860), favoured by Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway and Jean-Paul Sartre, the Florian in Venice (1720), frequented by Giacomo Casanova and Charles Dickens, the Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua (1831), the Caffè degli Specchi in Trieste (1839), the Caffè Greco in Rome (1760), haunt of Richard Wagner and Orson Welles, and the Caffè Fiorio in Turin (1780), whose customers included Cavour and Nietzsche.

Activity _unit3.9.1 Activity 5

Now listen to the recording and match the name of each caffè and the town in which it is located.

Don’t worry if you only catch some of the words or only get a very general idea of what is being talked about. Remember that your main purpose for listening is to carry out the task and that you can do this without understanding every word; even when you listen to something in your own language you will find that you rarely hear every word, unless you are really concentrating on the message.

Download this audio clip.Audio player: lxi001_wk2_act_aud003.mp3

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Transcript

INSTRUCTOR:

Here is some information about some historic Italian coffee houses.

In Italia ci sono molti caffè storici. Sono eleganti e raffinati, e offrono varie specialità. Il Caffè Fiorio è a Torino. Le sue specialità sono il gelato in estate e la cioccolata calda in inverno. A Napoli c’è il Caffè Gambrinus, famoso per le sfogliatelle e i babà. È anche molto conosciuto il Caffè Florian di Venezia, dove servono il tipico liquore al caffè. Un caffè storico molto importante di Roma è il Caffè Greco, rinomato per la focaccia di polenta. Il Caffè San Marco, invece, è a Trieste. Serve gli aperitivi con gli spuntini salati.

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Turin

Caffè Fiorio

Naples

Caffè Gambrinus

Venice

Caffè Florian

Rome

Caffè Greco

Trieste

Caffè San Marco

Using the following two lists, match each numbered item with the correct letter.

1. Turin

2. Naples

3. Venice

4. Rome

5. Trieste

• a.Caffè Gambrinus

• b.Caffè Florian

• c.Caffè Fiorio

• d.Caffè Greco

• e.Caffè San Marco

The correct answers are:

• 1 = c
• 2 = a
• 3 = b
• 4 = d
• 5 = e

Answer

• Turin - Caffè Fiorio
• Naples- Caffè Gambrinus
• Venice - Caffè Florian
• Rome- Caffè Greco
• Trieste- Caffè San Marco