Caffè del Tasso

I went for coffee this morning with my Italian teacher and two of her colleagues at the University of Bergamo.  The university has locations scattered in several parts of the city, but the main part is in one of the narrow back streets of the medieval Città Alta.  We met them at their offices there.  It’s always a bit of a surprise when I come up to a building that may be several hundred years old, walk through the doorway, and emerge in the present.
 
My teacher is part of the Centro di Italiano per Stranieri at the university.  The Center provides Italian classes for foreign students, as well as others, like me, interested in learning the language.  We were getting together because I’d expressed an interest in finding out more about Center programs.  We walked from their offices a short ways to the Caffe del Tasso in the Piazza Vecchia.  I remembered that Lynda and I had had a glass of wine here when we visited Bergamo six years ago.

According to its own history, the Caffe, in one form or another, dates back to 1476 when it was known as the Locanda delle due Spade (the Inn of Two Swords).  Later, in 1681, after a statute honoring the poet Torquato Tasso was installed nearby, it became known as the Torquato Tasso Caffè e Bottiglieria (Torquato Tasso Caffe and Wine Shop).  Tasso was a 16th century poet best known for the epic poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) dealing with the First Crusade.  He was born in Sorrento, near Naples, but Tasso’s father was from Bergamo, which, it seems, was enough for the city to claim him as one of their own.  Eventually, sometime in the late 19th century, the Caffè's name was shortened to what it is today.

The place is modestly wide with the wine and coffee bar at the front and more tables towards the back.  This morning there was good light from the front window and the wooden floors and fixtures gave a comfortable old feeling; not 500+ years, but at least 19th century old.  Three of us had coffee and one had an orange juice.  And we talked about the Center.  I’m hoping to go back.  If it weren’t a bit far away on foot, I could become one of the regulars.