The historic cafés of Turin

It was called the «caffè dei codini» (the pigtails café), after the hairstyles and traditional dress of its patrons, but also the «caffè dei Machiavelli», for its political discussions. Initially tied to aristocratic and conservative circles, it later became a meeting place for intellectuals and leading figures of the Risorgimento, among them Cavour, Rattazzi and Massimo d'Azeglio.

There is also a more indulgent reason to go in: the ice-cream parlour, known above all for its gianduia ice cream, a speciality of the Turin tradition.

Behind that name are Ferdinando Baratti and Edoardo Milano, two confectioners from the Canavese who opened the business in 1858 in via Dora Grossa, today via Garibaldi, and moved here in 1875.

The café became a supplier to the Royal Household and a meeting place for Turin society. Part of the decoration dates from the extension completed in 1911, to a design by Giulio Casanova with the collaboration of the sculptor Edoardo Rubino.

Among the regulars of Baratti & Milano, Giovanni Giolitti and Luigi Einaudi are remembered. Guido Gozzano too has a link with the café: its female patrons inspired his poem «Le golose».

Among politicians, writers and customers from Turin society, this was a place where meeting people mattered as much as what was served. And reading Gozzano's verses makes you want to imagine that café life, made not only of great discussions but also of small daily rituals.

Amilcare Mulassano, owner of the Sacco distillery, known for its mint syrup, moved the business here from via Nizza in 1907. The furnishings were designed by the engineer Antonio Vandone di Cortemilia.

Around 1925 the café passed to Angela Demichelis and Onorino Nebiolo, Piedmontese who had returned from the United States with new eating habits. First they introduced toasted sandwiches, then small sandwiches of untoasted white bread with a generous filling: the tramezzini. The name is traditionally attributed to Gabriele d'Annunzio, although there is no certain documented confirmation.

The name comes from «bicerin», «little glass» in Piedmontese: coffee, chocolate and milk cream in a hot, non-alcoholic drink served in transparent glasses.

The premises have kept their intimate size, and the relationship with the square and the sanctuary can be felt even from inside. The historic furnishings still make it possible to understand how the old Turin chocolate houses were organised.

Among the café's historic patrons were Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and the writer Alexandre Dumas père.

Ernest Hemingway is also often associated with the bicerin. According to one tradition, he is said to have included the drink among the hundred things in the world worth saving. The phrase still circulates, but no original source has been found to confirm its authenticity. So take it for what it is: an anecdote tied to the fame of the bicerin, not a certain quotation from the writer.

Outside are the arcades of the seventeenth-century Palazzo Turinetti, facing piazza San Carlo. Founded in the first decades of the nineteenth century, the café became a meeting place for intellectuals and patriots of the Risorgimento, especially reformists and politicians such as Cavour and Massimo d'Azeglio, unlike the more aristocratic and conservative establishments.

Later it was also frequented by Giovanni Giolitti and Luigi Einaudi. The San Carlo is also known for its coffee blends.

The shop opened in piazza San Carlo in 1836, when the firm Reina e Stratta started its pastry and confectionery business. In 1858 the management passed to the Stratta brothers.

Having become a point of reference for Turin's bourgeoisie and nobility, the shop also obtained recognition as supplier to the Royal Household. Among the products you will find cakes, chocolate, sweets, sugared almonds and other specialities of the city's tradition.

In the nineteenth century, people did not come to Stratta only for the sweets. The confectioner's also offered selected wines and liqueurs, catering to the clientele of Turin society that frequented piazza San Carlo.

Still today the display windows and furnishings retain that particular care in the presentation of the products. It is a different way of experiencing a historic café, closer to the elegant shop than to the great meeting rooms. And precisely for this reason it is worth going in to take a look.

The Torino opened in 1903 near the church of San Carlo. In 1934, during the transformation of via Roma, it moved under these arcades of piazza San Carlo.

Inside, marbles, mirrors, fireplaces, gilded stuccoes and large chandeliers recall the taste of the Piedmontese Baroque. It is in these rooms that the café became one of the meeting places of twentieth-century Turin society.

Luigi Einaudi and Erminio Macario are among the regulars of the Torino: politics and show business shared this address.

Alongside the coffee bar and the pastry shop you will also find the tradition of Turin chocolate, with gianduiotti and other chocolates. It is a café born in the twentieth century, more recent than the eighteenth-century cafés on this route, even though its furnishings look to much older decorative models. A contrast you notice clearly as you enter the rooms.

The story began in 1870 with the Principe Umberto liqueur shop, later taken over by the brothers Ernesto and Pietro Platti. Over time the café became one of the meeting places of Turin's cultural life.

The pastry shop also has a speciality of its own: the Torta Platti chocolate cake, made to a recipe the house keeps secret.

Luigi Einaudi, Natalia Ginzburg, Mario Soldati and Erminio Macario: the names linked to Platti come from politics, culture and entertainment.

We like this mix, because the café's different rooms tell of a café life that was not reserved for a single social or professional category. You could meet people from different worlds, from literature to public life. And it is this variety of patrons, too, that makes the history of Platti interesting.