The cafe is not only a place to enjoy a cup of coffee, it is also a space - distinct from its urban environment - in which to reflect and take part in intellectual debate. Since the eighteenth century in Europe, intellectuals and artists have gathered in cafes to exchange ideas, inspirations and information that has driven the cultural agenda for Europe and the world. Without the café, would there have been a Karl Marx or a Jean-Paul Sartre? The café as an institutional site has been the subject of renewed interest amongst scholars in the past decade, and its role in the development of art, ideas and culture has been explored in some detail. However, few have investigated the ways in which cafés create a cultural and intellectual space which brings together multiple influences and intellectual practices and shapes the urban settings of which they are a part. This volume presents an international group of scholars who consider cafés as sites of intellectual discourse from across Europe during the long modern period. Drawing on literary theory, history, cultural studies and urban studies, the contributors explore the ways in which cafes have functioned and evolved at crucial moments in the histories of important cities and countries - notably Paris, Vienna and Italy. Choosing these sites allows readers to understand both the local particularities of each café while also seeing the larger cultural connections between these places. By revealing how the café operated as a unique cultural context within the urban setting, this volume demonstrates how space and ideas are connected. As our global society becomes more focused on creativity and mobility the intellectual cafés of past generations can also serve as inspiration for contemporary and future knowledge workers who will expand and develop this tradition of using and thinking in space.

A photographic portrait of the oldest coffeehouse in Italy. Caffe Florian in St. Mark's Square has always been the high-society "drawing room" of Venice. And Gianni Berengo Gardin, an adoptive Venetian, has always had close ties with the city where he began his career. This book is the result of his photographing a week in the life of the historic cafe which boasts habitues from the past such as Casanova and Byron. Berengo Gardin has sat in his usual discreet fashion on the plush small red divans in Florian's and captured around forty timeless moments from everyday life. The black-and-white images provide a wonderful insight into the reality of Florian's, which is about to celebrate three hundred years of glorious social life. In fact, the cafe was opened under the Procuratie Nuove by Floriano Francesconi in 1720. Now a major photographer has prepared a magnificent birthday gift for a place that has seen centuries of history.

Margaret Plant presents a wide-ranging cultural history of the city from the fall of the Republic in 1797, until 1997, showing how it has changed and adapted and how perceptions of it have shaped its reality.

Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize winning author, was known as much for his prose as for his travels to exotic locales, his gusto and charm created excitement wherever he went. In Ernest's Way, we follow Cristen around the globe to the places he lived, wrote, fought, drank, fished, ran with the bulls and held court with T.S. Elliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein and many other influential writers, artists and intellectuals of the 20th century. Written with intimate insights, history and essential logistical information, Ernest's Way is the first comprehensive guide to the legendary author’s adventures, showcasing for readers the places that shaped his life and writing. With fresh and lively prose, Cristen bings these places to life for the modern reader, allowing all who admire Hemingway's life and literature to enjoy his legacy in a new and vibrant way.

In this journey through the work of artists and the writings of travelers who have been both smitten and repelled by the influence of Venice, Margaret Doody explores ways in which this is a city profoundly unlike any other on earth—and one that simultaneously unsettles and reveals many of our most deeply rooted cultural values.

Venice conjures images of gondolas drifting along misty canals and pigeon-feeding visitors dwarfed by the splendor of St. Mark’s. For tourists seeking these typical Venetian icons, this magical city will never disappoint. But for a more rounded experience, the longtime residents and experts who have contributed to Time Out Venice take readers down backstreets and into campi and calli where few tourists tread: to hidden churches with hidden artworks; to architectural and sculptural gems in concealed courtyards; and to districts where the everyday life of Venice goes on in time-honored, washing-festooned, market-haggling fashion. Included is a wealth of practical information on escaping the menu turistico to discover authentic eateries; hiring a gondola and coping with acqua alta; finding budget digs in a city of haute hotels; and traveling beyond the Venetian lagoon to the magnificent cities — Padua, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso — and countryside of the mainland Veneto region.

WHAT WONDROUS TREATS GRACIE HAS IN STORE FOR US AS SHE EXPLORES THE “CAMPI” AND “CALLE” OF THE CITY ON THE LAGOON. MANY THROUGHOUT THE AGES HAVE EXTOLLED VENICE‛S COUNTLESS CHARMS BUT NONE QUITE LIKE GRACIE. THE CAPTIVATING COCKER REGALES US WITH HER KEENEYED OBSERVATIONS AS SHE SNIFFS HER WAY AROUND THE “SERENISSIMA.”