33 cafés in 14 citys. Places change: check opening hours before you go.
Silvio Meletti, maker of anisetta, opened this café on Piazza del Popolo in 1907. Trilussa wrote poems here and Hemingway and Sartre are said to have visited.
Order: anisetta con la mosca (with a coffee bean) · espresso
💡 Order the anisetta "con la mosca": a coffee bean floats in the glass.
The Swiss Gilli family opened a sweet-bread shop in 1733; it moved twice before settling on the square in the early 1900s. Futurists like Marinetti and Soffici met under its painted ceilings.
Order: espresso · cioccolata calda · pastries
💡 Coffee at the bar is much cheaper than at the terrace on the piazza.
Founded in 1896 by two German brothers and named after the red jackets its waiters wore. It was a cradle of Futurism and of the magazines Lacerba and Solaria; it reopened in June 2024 after five years closed.
Order: espresso · aperitivo
Enrico Rivoire, chocolate maker to the House of Savoy, opened his steam-powered chocolate shop in 1872 when Florence was capital. Its terrace looks straight at Palazzo Vecchio.
Order: cioccolata calda con panna · espresso
A Genoese pastry café from 1828 whose customers included Giuseppe Verdi; its "Falstaff" brioche is named for him. It has reopened with its old interiors and the family's original recipes.
Order: espresso · Falstaff brioche
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Opened in 1915 at the entrance of the Galleria, it calls itself the home of the Milanese aperitivo and keeps its Liberty-style bar.
Order: espresso at the bar · Campari seltz
💡 The standing bar by the door is the quick, cheaper option.
Antonio Cova opened it in 1817 next to La Scala, where Verdi was a customer and patriots met during the 1848 Five Days. Bombed in 1943, it moved to Via Monte Napoleone in 1950.
Order: espresso · panettone in season · pastries
💡 Pay at the till first, then show the receipt at the bar.
A Belle Époque coffeehouse behind the Prefecture, steps from Piazza del Plebiscito and the Royal Palace. Its gilded rooms have been the city's grand café for well over a century.
Order: caffè · sfogliatella · babà
💡 Drink at the counter like Neapolitans do; table service in the salons costs more.
Francesco Pedrocchi started serving coffee here in 1772; the neoclassical building by Giuseppe Jappelli opened in 1831. Called the "café without doors" because it stayed open day and night until 1916, it was the scene of the 1848 student uprising.
Order: caffè Pedrocchi (espresso with mint cream and cocoa)
💡 The upstairs rooms house the Museum of the Risorgimento and can be visited separately.
Spinnato began as a bakery in 1860 and grew into one of Palermo's best-known cafés, with tables on the pedestrian Via Principe di Belmonte.
Order: espresso · granita con brioche · cannolo
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Opened in 1922 on Piazza del Popolo, it drew painters from nearby Via Margutta and later Fellini, Pasolini and Orson Welles in the dolce vita years.
Order: espresso · cappuccino · aperitivo
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Marco Lovrinovich opened it in 1914, and its Viennese Secession interior became a meeting place for irredentists and writers. Today it doubles as a bookshop, and people still write at its marble tables.
Order: nero (espresso) · capo in b (macchiato in a glass)
💡 Learn Trieste's own coffee words: a "nero" is an espresso and a "capo" a macchiato.
Tomaso Marcato opened it in 1830 with Thonet furniture and murals by Giuseppe Gatteri. It was a centre of the 1848 national movement, and Claudio Magris wrote much of "Danubio" here.
Order: nero · capo · sacher torte
Opened in 1839 in Palazzo Stratti, it is the only survivor of the four cafés on what was Piazza Grande. The name comes from mirrors engraved with historic events; after the Second World War the Royal Navy used it as a headquarters.
Order: nero · capo · presnitz pastry
A tiny wood-panelled room facing the Consolata sanctuary, open since 1763. Count Cavour had a regular table, and it gives its name to the bicerin, layered coffee, chocolate and cream served in a small glass.
Order: bicerin
💡 Don't stir the bicerin; drink it so the layers mix in your mouth.
Two Canavese confectioners, Ferdinando Baratti and Edoardo Milano, started in 1858 and moved into the Galleria Subalpina in 1875. The 1909 interior of mirrors, marble and bronze is still in use; the house is known for its cremino chocolates.
Order: espresso · cioccolata calda · cremino
Open since 1780 under the arcades of Via Po, it was the meeting place of Cavour and d'Azeglio, and King Carlo Alberto reportedly asked each morning what was said there. The walk-away ice-cream cone is said to have been born here.
Order: espresso · gelato gianduja · bicerin
A tiny Liberty-style café of onyx, marble and bronze on Piazza Castello since 1907. The Nebiolo family, owners from 1925, are credited with inventing the tramezzino here.
Order: espresso · tramezzino · bicerin
💡 Seating is limited to a few tables; the counter is quicker.
Opened in 1822 and a favourite of Risorgimento patriots, later of Giolitti, Crispi and Gramsci. The Duke of the Abruzzi is said to have planned his 1899 polar expedition at its tables.
Order: espresso · bicerin · gianduiotto
Floriano Francesconi opened it on 29 December 1720 as "Alla Venezia Trionfante", but Venetians named it after him. Goldoni, Casanova and Byron sat in its painted rooms under the Procuratie Nuove, and the idea for the Venice Biennale is traced to its tables.
Order: espresso · cioccolata calda · spritz
💡 A surcharge is added to table bills when the orchestra plays; coffee at the bar inside costs far less.
Opened in 1750 under the Clock Tower and bought by Carlo Lavena in 1860. Richard Wagner came almost every afternoon to talk with the owner, and Liszt was also a regular.
Order: espresso al banco · cappuccino
💡 Its standing bar is one of the cheapest ways to drink coffee on Piazza San Marco.
Giorgio Quadri and his Greek wife Naxina took over a coffee shop under the Procuratie Vecchie in 1775 and served Turkish coffee. Stendhal, Byron, Wagner and Proust came through, and since 2011 the Alajmo family of Padua has run it.
Order: espresso · cappuccino · tramezzino
💡 Stand at the ground-floor bar for a quick coffee without the piazza table charge.
A pastry bar on Lecce's main square where the local summer drink, caffè leccese (espresso over ice with almond syrup), and the pasticciotto custard pastry are breakfast staples.
Order: caffè leccese · pasticciotto
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A busy standing bar by Napoli Centrale station where espresso comes short, strong and already sweetened, the Neapolitan way.
Order: caffè (pre-sweetened) · caffè senza zucchero
💡 Ask for "senza zucchero" before they pour if you want it unsweetened.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Run by the Assenza family since 1892 on Noto's baroque main street. Pastry chef Corrado Assenza, featured on Netflix's Chef's Table, is known for granite and almond sweets.
Order: granita di mandorla con brioche · espresso · cannolo
A family-run roastery-bar a few steps from the Pantheon since 1944, now in its fourth generation of roasters. Romans stand at the long counter for espresso and granita di caffè.
Order: espresso · granita di caffè con panna
💡 Pay at the cashier first, then hand your receipt to the barista.
Open since 1938 near the Pantheon, it roasts its own beans over wood. The baristas make the gran caffè behind a screen so nobody can see how the thick crema is done.
Order: gran caffè · espresso
💡 The coffee comes sweetened; say "amaro" if you want it without sugar.
A small roaster-bar on a Cannaregio canal, roasting its own beans away from the San Marco crowds.
Order: espresso · beans to take home
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A specialty roaster-café in Bergamo's lower town, with a second bar in the Città Alta; ranked on the 2025 Top 100 Coffee Shops Europe list.
Order: filter · espresso
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Opened in 2013, it was one of the first specialty roaster-cafés in Italy and helped bring filter coffee to Florence. It appears on the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list.
Order: espresso · filter · cappuccino
A Milan roaster with its own lab and several bars around the city; the Brera bar is a good stop between galleries.
Order: espresso · pour-over
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A small specialty bar near Porta Venezia known for light-roast espresso and filter in a city of dark-roast bars.
Order: espresso · filter · flat white
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
A specialty coffee bar near Porta Pia that brews light-roasted coffee from guest and own roasts. It ranked 7th on the 2025 Top 100 Coffee Shops Europe list and in the global top 100.
Order: filter of the day · espresso · cappuccino
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.