Specialty coffee in Venice

When Floriano Francesconi opened his place under the Procuratie, just after the start of carnival in 1720, he called it Alla Venezia Trionfante. The name never caught on for a moment - customers simply said they were going to Floriano's, and it has stayed that way ever since. Something else mattered more: in a city that barred women from the botteghe, this was the one place where a woman could sit down - over a coffee or over the hot chocolate that was called Indian brew here. The cup was a pass here as much as a drink.