Literary Florence
Sara Parrot
Among its treasure-filled museums and its grand buildings and monuments of the Quattrocento, Florence also offers visitors a unique literary experience, through its lovely bookstores and stationery shops, its charming writerly cafés, and its role as the birthplace of the great medieval poet Dante Alighieri.
A promotional video at the Museo Casa di Dante welcomes visitors with a contemporary approach to Giotto’s fresco of the poet from ca. 1335—the original artwork is in the nearby Palazzo del Bargello. Photograph by Madrigalit
Museo Casa di Dante
It would be impossible to speak of “Literary Florence” without mention of the city’s native son Dante Alighieri, the medieval poet who wrote La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) and ushered forth a new literary language based upon the Tuscan dialect. Dante’s influence and impressions can be found throughout the city (see our related article about Dante in Florence here) and, though he was born and educated in Florence, he suffered exile due to political forces that also heavily inspired his Inferno, the first book of the Commedia.
“Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third.”
—T. S. Eliot, in his essay “What Is a Classic?” from 1944
Perhaps the simplest way for a visitor to acquaint oneself with Dante and his literary achievement in Florence is to visit the museum dedicated to him, the Museo Casa di Dante, which also purports to be the poet’s former home. This small museum leads visitors through Dante’s life, the politics of Florence during the poet’s time, and his artistic legacy, with special attention devoted to the Commedia. The museum is situated near the Badia Fiorentina, the abbey and church where Dante likely heard the monks’ Gregorian chants and where he might have first set his eyes on his beloved Beatrice Portinari, who inspired the poet in various of his writings including, most particularly, La Vita Nuova (The New Life).
La Feltrinelli bookstore, with various outposts in Florence, has a wide selection of books in Italian and other languages, making it a treasure trove of literary gems for ex-pat bibliophiles. Photograph by Madrigalit
La Feltrinelli bookstore
Today, the traveler to Florence can wander into various bookstores in the city and find a brimming selection of volumes by writers from Italy and around the world. For the ex-pat visitor, La Feltrinelli, with its impressive selection of books in English and other languages, is a practical choice. With locations littered about the town, one is never too far from the opportunity to dive into a new story. The shop in the Piazza della Repubblica also houses a café inside, where an avid reader can enjoy sipping a cup of coffee with a new book.
A shelf at the enchanting Piccola Farmacia Letteraria, where shoppers can find books to cure various emotional ailments. Photograph by Madrigalit
Piccola Farmacia Letteraria
Although off the beaten track and with only a limited selection of books in other languages, the delightful Piccola Farmacia Letteraria is one of the most unique bookstores you’ll find anywhere. The shop “prescribes” books for various conditions, organizing its offerings into such categories as: ansia (anxiety), autostima (self-esteem), cambiemento (change), relazioni (relationships), and riscoperto di sé (self-discovery). This tiny “pharmacy” is a good trek of at least thirty minutes from the city center, but the literary pilgrim is rewarded with a charming atmosphere replete with old medicine bottles and pretty literary accoutrements and—check to be sure before you go—a café that is sometimes open with tables and chairs on the patio in front.
The Caffé Gilli has been a beloved café and literary haunt in Florence since the eighteenth century. Photograph by Madrigalit
Caffè Gilli
Said to be the oldest café in Florence (founded in 1733) and the only surviving example of a Florentine “liberty-style” café—an ornately decorated café that served as a meeting place for intellectuals in the late nineteenth century—the Caffè Gilli is well worth a visit for its historical attributes alone (as well as its delicious pastries and chocolates). However, this lovely eatery also boasts an enviable literary patina. Many American writers who visited the Tuscan capital in the middle part of the twentieth century hung out at the Caffè Gilli, including Truman Capote, Allen Ginsberg, Ernest Hemingway, and Henry Miller—Hemingway even mentions the café and its vibrant literary scene in his memoir A Moveable Feast, which chronicles the author’s time in Paris and other European cities. The English novelist and essayist E. M. Forster also frequented the Caffè Gilli when he was in Florence. To learn more about the Caffè Gilli, see our forthcoming story about it in our series Duos.
A view into the Loggia dei Lanzi that recreates E. M. Forster’s character Lucy Honeychurch’s look at the open-air gallery in the early twentieth century. Photograph by Madrigalit
Loggia dei Lanza
The Loggia dei Lanzi in the Piazza della Signoria is another spot well worth visiting in Florence regardless of one’s literary aspirations. This open-air gallery features sculptures from classical Greece and Rome alongside such Renaissance masterworks as Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini and Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna.
“The great square was in shadow; the sunshine had come too late to strike it. Neptune was already unsubstantial in the twilight, half god, half ghost, and his fountain plashed dreamily to the men and satyrs who idled together on its marge. The Loggia showed as the triple entrance of a cave, wherein many a deity, shadowy, but immortal, looking forth upon the arrivals and departures of mankind. It was the hour of unreality—the hour, that is, when unfamiliar things are real.”
— from A Room with a View (1908) by E. M. Forster
While these artworks provide mythical and historical stories unto themselves, the locale is also referenced in E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View. The novel, published in 1908, is set in Italy and highlights various Florentine spots, including the Basilica of Santa Croce and the Uffizi Gallery (the latter of which is mere footsteps from the Loggia). In Forster’s tale, the protagonist, Lucy Honeychurch, visits the Loggia with her cousin, Charlotte Bartlett, where the two admire the sculptures and gaze down the Vasari Corridor to the Arno River.
For more stories about Florence, visit our sister journal on Medium.
For a selection of books about Florence, see our related article.