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Rising rents are affecting coffee shops around the world. The proprietors of Rome’s oldest cafe, Antico Caffè Greco, know this all too well, having just lost an eight-year battle to stay in their famous location.
As Barbie Latza Nadeau reports for CNN, the Antico Caffè Greco sits at the foot of the famous Spanish Steps in the center of Rome. Opened in 1760, it was a favorite haunt of historical figures and celebrities, including Giacomo Casanova, Hans Christian Andersen, Henry James, Orson Welles, and Audrey Hepburn.
In 2017, the cafe’s 80-year lease expired, and the building’s owners, the Israelite Hospital of Rome, raised the rent from about $20,000 to $140,000 per month. “We would be ready to pay more rent to keep the café open but not six times the amount we’re paying now,” Carlo Pellegrini, one of the cafe’s proprietors, said at the time. “I feel very angry, but we will fight this.”
Having lost five appeals and retrials, Pellegrini and co-owner Flavia Iozzi were formally evicted last month. The cafe “was shuttered with the help of the military police,” Nadeau writes.
In a statement issued in 2023, the Israelite Hospital said that “revenue generated by its properties has always been and will always be used … for the sole purpose of improving healthcare.” Antonio Maria Leozappa, the hospital’s special commissioner, told CNN that it plans to reopen the cafe under new management after renovations. “It is a historic café, it is one of the first in Italy, it dates back to the late 18th century,” he said.
Like cities around the world, Rome has seen commercial rents skyrocket in recent years. The Antico Caffè Greco sits alongside stores like Gucci, Versace, and Dior, but many shops on the street remain vacant. “Curious tourists peer through the windows into the empty space,” Nadeau writes. “Inside, the lights are on, but no one is making coffee.”
