The Café de Paris was a famous bar on

Via Veneto Via Vittorio Veneto (), colloquially called Via Veneto, is one of the most famous, elegant, and expensive streets of Rome, Italy. The street is named after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto (1918), a decisive Italian victory of World War I. Federico F ...

, one of the best known and most expensive streets in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy. It was located at No. 90, close to the United States embassy."Battle of the Beach"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

''. October 19, 1959. The bar was immortalised in 1960 in the movie ''

La Dolce Vita ''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello ...

'' by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini, starring

Anita Ekberg Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (; 29 September 193111 January 2015) was a Swedish actress active in American and European films, known for her beauty and stunning figure. She became prominent in her iconic role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini ...

Anouk Aimée Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus (born 27 April 1932), known professionally as Anouk Aimée () or Anouk, is a French film actress, who has appeared in 70 films since 1947, having begun her film career at age 14. In her early years, she studi ...

and Marcello Mastroianni who played a "

paparazzo Paparazzi (, ; ; singular: masculine paparazzo or feminine paparazza) are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people; such as actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities, typically while subjects ...

" riding his

Vespa Vespa () is an Italian luxury brand of scooters and mopeds manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian. The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy to ...

in search of celebrities."Memoirs shed new light on La Dolce Vita era of drugs, sex and debauchery"
''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

''. February 7, 2010. During the heady days in the 1960s, the café was one of the preferred watering holes of starlets, residual nobility,

nouveau riche ''Nouveau riche'' (; ) is a term used, usually in a derogatory way, to describe those whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation, rather than by familial inheritance. The equivalent English term is the "new rich" or "new money" ( ...

, and sultans."Drink to Mafia's bad health at Rome's Dolce Vita cafe"
, Reuters, December 19, 2011

Incidents

On 16 September 1985, grenades were thrown at the outdoor tables outside the bar, wounding 38 people. The Lebanese-born Palestinian, Ahmed Hossein Abu Sereya, was arrested and charged with the attack. Sereya, identified as a member of the

Abu Nidal Organization The Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) is the most common name for the Palestinian nationalist militant group Fatah – The Revolutionary Council (''Fatah al-Majles al-Thawry''). The ANO is named after its founder Abu Nidal. It was created by a spli ...

, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 1987. In 2008, the Italian anti-fraud police announced that the bar had been taken over by 'Ndrangheta crime families from Calabria. The bar was in the hands of the Alvaro 'Ndrangheta clan. Antimafia judges from Reggio Calabria seized the premises in July 2009. The bar re-opened in November 2011 and was managed by the National Agency for the Administration and Allocation of Confiscated Properties (''Agenzia nazionale per l'amministrazione e la destinazione dei beni confiscati''). It sold products produced by one of Italy's leading anti-Mafia groups

Libera Libera may refer to: * Libera (mythology), a Roman goddess of fertility * Libera (choir), a boy vocal group from London * ''Libera'' (film), a 1993 comedy film * "Libera" (song), a song by Italian artist Mia Martini * ''Libera'' (gastropod), a ...

, which ran cooperative farms on lands confiscated from

the Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

and other

Italian organized crime Organized crime in Italy and its criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially Southern Italy, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions since at least the 19th century. There are six ...

groups. "The new administrators wanted the cafe to offer products that are not only good but just", said Father

Luigi Ciotti Luigi Ciotti OMRI (born in Pieve di Cadore ( province of Belluno), September 10, 1945), is an Italian priest belonging to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Turin, deeply involved in the fight against illegality and organized crime such as the Mafi ...

the president of Libera."Café de Paris, nuova vita anti-mafia; nello storico bar i prodotti di Libera"
''La Repubblica'', December 19, 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cafe De Paris (Rome) Restaurants in Rome History of the 'Ndrangheta Abu Nidal attacks Palestinian terrorist incidents in Europe