A splendid café, this bastion of the Risorgimento was the place of D’Azeglio, Cavour, Lamarmora, Rattazzi, and Giolitti. Here Crispi convinced the Left to intervene in Africa, and Gramsci decided to set up ‘L’Ordine Nuovo’. Here Alexandre Dumas enjoyed his first ‘bicerin’, and Admiral Cigni and the Duke of the Abruzzi planned the 1899 Arctic expedition with the Stella Polare. Einaudi, Croce, De Amicis, Casorati, Gobetti, Medardo Rosso and Bontempelli all made this their cultural meeting place. For years Gramsci would sit at the table and write play reviews for Avanti! and here he decided to found “L’Ordine Nuovo”.
