Caffe Florian

Coffee under the arcades since 1720

The tables that spill into Piazza San Marco in Venice belong to a coffee house that opened in 1720 and has not stopped since, which makes Caffè Florian the oldest café in Italy and one of the oldest in Europe. The drinks are almost secondary to that fact. What you are paying for is a room that Casanova, Goethe, Byron, Dickens and Proust all passed through, and which later collected Elton John and Clint Eastwood in much the same way.

The coffee itself is Venetian rather than specialty: cappuccino in the morning, espresso at any hour, prosecco when the hour turns. Cornetti come with the first of those, and the pastry side runs on through the day into tarts and small cakes. Tea is served as well, and tea sets belong to the Florian retail world alongside the branded perfumes and leather goods in the storefront.

Salons, arcades and an orchestra in season

The rooms are the point, and they are theatrical: gilded mirrors, ornate finishes, aged gilding around the entrance, and ten portraits of illustrious Venetians, Titian among them, looking down on the tables. Waiters work in white coats and bow ties, and the service has the practised speed of a house that has been doing this for three centuries.

Where you sit changes the visit entirely. The indoor salons are small, intimate and heavily decorated. Tables by the big window look onto the square, tables under the arches keep the weather off, and tables out in the open put you in the middle of San Marco with the orchestra playing across the piazza in season. That last option is the expensive theatre, and it is the one most people come for.

Order cappuccino and cornetti first

Start with cappuccino and cornetti. It is the pairing the place does most naturally, it fits the breakfast-facing side of the café, and it does not pretend the coffee is why you are here. Espresso is the shorter version. Prosecco is the correct order if the visit is an evening pause rather than a morning one.

Beyond that, choose by hour and appetite. The savoury side runs to lasagna, a mixed shrimp salad, eggplant stuffed with mozzarella, and prosciutto with mozzarella. The sweet side is stronger: a pistachio and raspberry tart, a small tiramisu cake, macarons. None of it is why Florian has lasted three hundred years. The gilded salons, the square outside, and the feeling of sitting inside a very old idea of what a café is for: that is the reason.