WHAT IS THE Giubbe Rosse ?
The most vivid eyewitness account of the famous café in those days was provided in l933 by Alberto Viviani: "There were two glass doors, of which one was always closed, and the other was used as the entrance; mounted above the doors was a frieze, made out of solid wood, which depicted an angel plied with beer, with underneath a big sign reading: " Reininghaus" ; and many arc lamps, of the kind which today are found only in Paris, spread a strange glittering light at the entrance. The waiters, who were dressed in a flaming red smoking with a loose fitting white apron, wrapped around them like a cassock, lent a gay note to the atmosphere, which made it all quite unforgettable. In the first room, where the walls consisted of mirrors made out of polished glass, placid and massive Germans would be immersed in reading "Die Woche" and "Berliner Tageblatt", with tremendous steins of dark beer within reach; in addition there would always be a few "fraulein" on hand, who wore a look of perpetual surprise and dismay, and kept their eyes glued to the ceiling. The second room would below the gentle light spread by its' skylight welcome a few international couples in search of peace and quiet by day and turn into a restaurant at night. The "Giubbe Rosse" was always stocked with newspapers and magazines from all over the world, and I believe that to be the reason that so many foreigners flocked to it. In fact, the first two rooms were much more reminiscent of a literary circle than a café.
Some law-abiding citizens founded a Florentian chess club in the back of the third room, for which they paid a low monthly rent. They were extremely methodical and melancholy people, mostly clerks or magistrates of the Appeals Court, and pharmacists, engineers without prospects, and lawyers without cause. But the sleepy peace of the café was about to be disturbed, when in l913 the third room became the main office of the "Lacerba Group", and thus, of the Florentian Futurists. The protests of the Chess Group were completely futile, and soon the following poem started becoming popular:
"Giubbe Rosse è quella cosa
che ci vanno i futuristi
se discuton non c'è cristi,
non puoi più giocare a dam..."
FORGE OF DREAMS AND PASSIONS
Thus Alberto Viviani defines the "Giubbe Rosse" where the Futurist movement blossomed, struggled and expanded. The "Giubbe Rosse" plays an important role in the history of Italian Culture as a workshop of ideas, projects, and passions."We want to celebrate love of danger, of constant energy, and courage. We want to encourage going in aggressive new directions, feverish sleeplessness, running, deathly leaps, slaps and blows. We want to destroy museums, libraries, all types of academies, and combat moralism. We are launching our devastatingly violent and inflammatory manifest, with which we intend to found the Futuristic Movement, from Italy, because we want to free this country from the fetid cancer of its' professors, archaeologists, guides, and antiquarians," thus thundered Marinetti from the pages of the February 20 issue of the Figaro, trying to shake up the sleepy and respectable Italian cultural world.
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