A slice of Varchiglia – shortcrust pastry, dried fruit, and chocolate – prepared according to an ancient recipe of the Discalced Carmelite nuns. A slice of Torta Telesio – lupin flour, almonds, and sour cherries – with which the philosopher Nuccio Ordine, who passed away too soon, started his day inspired by the great Bernardino, a Calabrian naturalist thinker of the 16th century. A cube of roasted nougat, the kind that for 40 years accompanied the coffees of parliamentarians at the Montecitorio buffet. At the tables, a flâneur engineer, another who composes verses in dialect for passion, a British linguist, and various patrons sipping coffee corrected with Vov.
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The Gran Caffè Renzelli in a research study by the University of Oxford
The Gran Caffè Renzelli of Cosenza, listed among the 200 historic bars of Italy, preserves the spirit of the Belle Époque but, without nostalgia, looks to the future from the ancient Bruzia city: an Italian Literature researcher from the University of Oxford, of Neapolitan origin, Fanny Clemente, and Greta Colombiani from Crema, a PhD student in English Literature at Cambridge, affiliated with the oldest academic institution in the Anglo-Saxon world, are conducting a study on Italian literary cafés. Following the stages of the Grand Tour, they started from the South to visit the venues that have made the history of our cities.
Francesco Renzelli
The modern role of literary cafés
The research, funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, with an initial tranche of 10,000 pounds, aims to create a digital map to be published on the prestigious University of Oxford’s website, “demonstrating how literary cafés are still places of culture and thought. And as such,” explains Greta Colombani, “they must not only be preserved but nurtured, kept alive, combining history and local traditions with innovation and digital technology.”
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Spaces for cultural and civil growth
Under the spotlight of a videomaker, pressed by the questions of the two researchers, Francesco Renzelli, who, together with his siblings Stefano and Enza, manages the historic café located in the ancient heart of the city, between the cathedral (a UNESCO heritage site) and the Archbishop’s Palace: “We are like a new café chantant. There are no ladies, but we remain a space for discussion, meeting, and exchange serving our community which, historically, has found in our rooms opportunities and spaces for its cultural and civil growth. Now the historic center urgently needs a revival and the Gran Caffè Renzelli, which, as you see, is alive and active, proposes itself,” concludes the entrepreneur from Cosenza, “as a driving force for its rebirth.”
Family businesses
“Families are the common denominator of these realities,” adds Fanny Clemente. “Behind Italian literary cafés there are almost always businesses passed down from father to son. Activities fueled by great synergies and a strong attachment to the original entrepreneurial project.” Just like the Caffè Meletti of Ascoli Piceno, an Art Nouveau lounge in Piazza del Popolo, born in the early 1900s from the entrepreneur who produced the famous Anisetta.
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