• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Italian Food Made Simple

  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Resources
    • Conversion Charts
    • Glossary
  • Travel Italia
  • Contact
  • Did You Know

Archives for May 2017

Harry’s Bar Venice: A History

May 28, 2017 by Barbara 3 Comments

Too many years ago, I published an article about the history of Harry’s Bar Venice, one of the most iconic landmarks in Italy.  I told my story through the eyes of Ruggero Caumo, who had worked at Harry’s for more than four decades, most of them as head barman. Ruggero was a charming and lovely man whom I met one day while he was mixing my martini.  I interviewed him on his day off while he was getting a haircut.   We spoke mostly in Italian, at his request. As he felt more comfortable, we switched to English. He had not yet retired from Harry’s and he was in an expansive mood. I was delighted.  After the original article was published, Ruggero wrote me  saying that many tourists had visited Harry’s Bar all summer long with clipped-out copies of the article asking him to autograph it. Naturally, he obliged.   I hope you enjoy his story:

 “This is a place where everybody in the world stops once in his life,” says Ruggero Caumo, head barman of Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy — the world’s most famous watering hole.

Ruggero ought to know. He has been tending bar there since 1946.

“I don’t need to go away to see the world,” he says. “The world passes through here.”

No one can argue with him. No trip to Venice is complete without a visit to Harry’s Bar, the always-crowded-to-capacity original from which all others are pale imitations.

From his vantage point, behind the tiny, intimate bar, Ruggero has spent the last several decades watching the human parade pass through. And what a parade.

He has mixed thousands of drinks for Harry’s legendary clientele – writers, film stars, tycoons, royalty, and assorted bon vivants—a list headed by novelist Ernest Hemingway, the man who put Harry’s Bar on the map.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Travel Italia Tagged With: Bellini, Cipriani, harry's bar, Harry's Bar Venice, Hemingway, martini, venice

Primary Sidebar


Hi. I'm Barbara Francis and I hope you like authentic Italian food as much as I do. It's simple, fresh, seasonal. What's not to like? And it's part of my heritage. So join me in the kitchen of Italian Food Made Simple. Just step right over the dog, she won't move even if you ask her.

more about me ยป

Stay Connected

RSS Twitter Facebook

Search

Archives

  • June 2018
  • February 2018
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014

Copyright © 2022 Italian Food Made Simple on the Foodie Pro Theme