CONTATTI

ADDRESS: Via Fillungo, 58 Lucca

A large sign with gold lettering on a neto background, the Art Nouveau decorations of the dark wood frame, and the large curved glass of the always glittering shop window are the unmistakable features of this historic place.

The interior is a refined and elegant ambience where one can meet to taste haute patisserie specialities, refined coffee blends, carefully selected wines and liqueurs, play chess, perhaps smoke a good cigar (it was allowed in those days) and enjoy cultured conversation or light chatter. For the people of Lucca and their guests, it was an ambience of relations and affection, easily recognisable by its atmosphere steeped in art, music and tradition, which contributed to making a piece of the city's history.

A large dark wooden bar with a fine marble top leads to the side rooms furnished with small gold-enamelled four-light chandeliers, boiseries and round tables, and on the walls period prints and maps of medieval Lucca.

1846 is the historic year of its opening, under the name Caffè Caselli. In 1902, after the death of the first owner, Carlo Caselli, his son, Alfredo inherited the premises. He is a man Alfredo, cultured, generous, a lover of the arts and a patron of the arts. Intellectuals, poets, writers and musicians, to whom he is linked by friendship and confidence, gather in the club. Among his frequent visitors were the two famous Lucchese composers Giacomo Puccini and Alfredo Catalani.

In 1921, on Alfredo's death, the café passed to the Di Simo brothers, who gave their name to the café. A ‘concert of friendships’ continued to take place within its walls, as recalled by the plaque placed there in 1958 by the then owners, Angelo Ricci and Fernando Pieri:

‘This café, in which the enthusiasm of the Risorgimento echoed, welcomed at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of our century literary poets and artists who were friends of the grocer patron Alfredo Caselli, including Giovanni Pascoli Giuseppe Giacosa Alfredo Catalani Giacomo Puccini Pietro Mascagni Libero Andreotti and Lorenzo Viani.’