Antico Caffè Greco

The Caffè Greco at 86 Via Condotti is one of the oldest coffee houses in Europe, opened in 1760. Situated between the Piazza di Spagna and the Via del Corso, it has always been a meeting point for artists from the Strangers’ Quarter. It is also where Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Henryk Ibsen would meet. During his four-month stay in Rome around the turn of 1866, Grieg would come here often. On New Year’s Eve 1865, he turned down a formal reception at the Scandinavian Society and holed up at the Caffè Greco with his good friend Georg Bohlmann. They drank hot chocolate and talked about their loved ones left behind in Scandinavia. Before 11 p.m. Grieg suddenly nodded off, and he failed to notice that he slept through the last hour of the old year.