The Coffee House

 

In the age of its greater richness Venice was renown also for the Botteghe del Caffè, the Coffee Shops. In 1759 there were in Venice 206 coffe shops, so many that the Republic made a law to stop it.

Many of them where in Saint Mark Square, and some are still open.
The most famous had the Venezia Trionfante –  Triumphant Venice – as sign, it was built in 1720 by Floriano Francescani, and people called it the Floriàn.
The Florian is still open, with the same name,  and you can have a coffee in just the same rooms where  Giacomo Casanova, Wolfgang Goethe, Lord Byron and George Sand were used to come.