What is it about Florence and writers? Why are there so many literary cafés and so many bookshops? Why the reopening of Le Giubbe Rossi? Why do so many come here to write, as they have been doing for hundreds of years? Is it the air, the river, the buildings or the presence of other writers?

Former librarian of The British Institute, Mark Roberts recently published Florence has Won my Heart, a fascinating survey of literary visitors to the Tuscan capital over 200 years. He gives charming and often very funny details of the way in which the city attracted a continuous cascade of successful writers who came and wrote (or wrote and came). Many could not bring themselves to leave Florence, and so remain underground in elaborate tombs in the English Cemetery, which divides the traffic in viale Antonio Gramsci at the piazzale Donatello, just north of piazza Beccaria.
The list of these literary giants is astounding. From Tobias Smollett, who thought Italian women “the most haughty, insolent, capricious and revengeful females on the face of the earth”, to Mark Twain, who lived by the mile-wide Mississippi and thought the Arno would be “a very plausible river if they could pump some water into it. They call it a river, and they honestly think it is a river, do these dark and bloody Florentines”. Another American, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, passed his time translating Dante in piazza Santa Maria Novella and Dostoyevsky found the city irresistible when he wrote The Idiot in piazza Pitti. Charles Dickens was impressed by Florentine buildings: “Prestigious palaces, constructed for defence, with small distrustful windows heavily barred… frown in their sulky state on every street.” Finally, Dylan Thomas: “I like the people I don’t know in the streets, but not the writers I meet in the cafés.”
There are still plenty of them: the writers in cafés. Each month, a Florentine writers’ newsletter is emailed to 200 addresses, informing all who are interested about literary meetings. There are lots of them every week: workshops, book presentations, generative writing sessions, reading and critical writing evenings, meet-the-author symposiums and well-attended publishing days. So many meetings, in fact, that one wonders whether the world could do with fewer writers and more readers. One benefit of Florence hosting such a large and expanding writing community is that members strike sparks off each other, and so improve their chances of getting published and becoming known.
Now, there is a new initiative. Following months of planning, a group of four, each with their own skill set and experiences, have come together to launch an association: Florence Literary Society.
The official mission statement is to serve the international writing community of Florence, from newbies to professionals, helping the members make new connections and understand the intricacies of the publishing world. In particular, they want to help budding authors to stimulate each other’s work and to understand how to move from writing to publishing. The first action will be to enlarge the spread of the newsletter. There will be workshops leading up to the primary event of a Publishing Day in October 2025, where there will be talks by authors and the chance to have one-on-one sessions with publishers and their agents. English will be the language for the events, but the idea is to encourage participation by people writing in any language, linking with a number of Italian-focused writers’ groups in Florence and offering a welcoming environment for the international community.
Wikipedia lists 179 literary societies from all over the world, but while Italy has many readers’ groups (circoli di lettori) and plenty of famous writers, resources for new writers are few and Florence Literary Society has ambitions to help to fill the void. William Wordsworth started The Literary Society in London in 1807 and this simple dining club was later joined by the likes of J.M. Barrie, Henry James and T.S. Eliot as it casts its net wider to include the composers, Elgar and Parry, then the art critic Kenneth Clark, and some prime ministers. Who knows what the future may hold for the FLS.
The Florence Literary Society holds a launch party at Todo Modo (via dei Fossi 15) from 7-9pm on January 22, enjoying a glass of wine and meeting fellow writers. Free entry with ticket required via Eventbrite. Find out more at florenceliterarysociety.com. Annual membership will be open from January 2025.