Café de Paris (Rome)

The Café de Paris is a famous bar on Via Veneto, one of the best known (and most expensive) streets in Rome. It is located at Nr. 90, close to the United States embassy.[1] The bar was immortalised in 1960 in the movie La Dolce Vita by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini, in which Marcello Mastroianni played a "paparazzo" riding his Vespa in search of celebrities.[2]

In November 2008, the Italian anti-fraud police announced that the bar had been taken over by 'Ndrangheta crime families from Calabria.[3][4] The bar was in the hands of the Alvaro 'Ndrangheta clan. Antimafia judges from Reggio Calabria seized the premises in July 2009.[5] The bar was re-opened in November 2011 and is now managed by the National Agency for the Administration and Allocation of Confiscated Properties (Agenzia nazionale per l'amministrazione e la destinazione dei beni confiscati), and sells products produced by the anti-Mafia association Libera.[6]

References

  1. ^ Battle of the Beach, Time Magazine, October 19, 1959
  2. ^ Memoirs shed new light on La Dolce Vita era of drugs, sex and debauchery, The Observer, February 7, 2010
  3. ^ Iconic Rome bar 'bought' by Calabrian Mafia, ADN Kronos, November 26, 2008
  4. ^ (Italian) La 'ndrangheta al "Cafè de Paris", addio al simbolo della Dolce Vita, La Repubblica, November 26, 2008
  5. ^ (Italian) La 'ndrangheta al Café de Paris, La Repubblica, July 22, 2009
  6. ^ (Italian) Café de Paris, nuova vita anti-mafia; nello storico bar i prodotti di Libera, La Repubblica, December 19, 2011