In a document dated 4 April 1782, which prohibited the introduction of ‘foreign wines’ into the State of Lucca and placed it under the control of a group of notables, it is mentioned as one of the taverns ‘to be watched over’. During the Enlightenment, prohibited works such as the Decameron were read at its tables. In the nineteenth century, it became a staging post and inn with a depot and stables. With its recipe for emmer-wheat soup, one of Italy’s most ancient dishes, its flavours have entranced Puccini, Pea, Ezra Pound, King Gustav of Sweden and Visconti, and earned it the praise of the world’s leading newspapers.