Caffè Le Giubbe Rosse

Caffè Giubbe Rosse is a café in Piazza della Repubblica (13-14r), Florence. The giubbe rosse of its name are the "Red Shirts" of Garibaldi's forces during the Risorgimento, a badge of honour for liberal Italians, reflected in the silent allusion of the waiters' red jackets. The café has a long-standing reputation as the resort of literati and intellectuals. Alberto Viviani defined the Giubbe Rosse as "fucina di sogni e di passioni" ("a forge of dreams and passions"). The Giubbe Rosse was the place where the Futurist movement blossomed, struggled and expanded; it played a very important role in the history of Italian culture as a workshop of ideas, projects, and passions. "We want to celebrate love of danger, of constant energy, and courage. We want to encourage going in aggressive new directions, feverish sleeplessness, running, deathly leaps, slaps and blows".Poets such as Ardengo Soffici, Giovanni Papini, Eugenio Montale, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Giuseppe Prezzolini and many others met and wrote in this literary café, an important venue of Italian literature in the beginning of the 20th century. Important magazines such as Solaria and Lacerba originated here from the writers who frequented the café. Giubbe Rosse was founded by two Germans, the Reininghaus brothers, in the beginning of the 1900s; the current owner is Fiorenzo Smalzi who currently publishes books by important Italian poets.