The Venetians first encountered coffee in Constantinople, where it had arrived in the late sixteenth century. Two Syrian, Hakm and Shams, were running a very successful coffee shop in the Bosporus.
In 1640, Venetians ships began importing coffee beans, or kahve from Ottoman Empire.
The first coffee house in Venice, retailing coffee to Christian Venetians, was opened in 1683, in Piazza San Marco.
It was modeled after the coffee shops that Western travellers encountered in the Ottoman Empire.
One of the early famous coffee house keepers of Venice was Floriano Francesconi, who opened a small establishment in St Mark’s Square, under the Procuratie Nuove in 1720. It was called the Venice Triumphant.
The coffee house market in Venice was transformed in 1723 by Giuseppe Boduzzi’s new Caffè Aurora, under the arcades of the Procuratie Nuove next to the campanile.
First coffee house in Venice
