Writing in a Florence cafe

In late 2009 I travelled to Italy with a few good friends. It was an important personal cultural pilgrimage, and I spent a month wandering about the Italian peninsula, variously writing and sketching in cafés in Rome, Florence, Venice, Sorrento, Lucca, Siena, Amalfi and on the Isle of Capri. This photo was taken on the 21 October 2009 in a piazza in Florence. Digital cameras have their uses - the metadata attached to this image tells me that it was precisely 19 minutes past 12 noon when I took the snap. I was writing with my Porsche Design stainless-steel weave ballpoint pen in a leather-bound  journal I had bought earlier that week, also in Florence. Florence does paper, albums, books and journals well. I particularly like the products of Il Papiro, who happily have a shop in Melbourne as well as three in Florence. While there I managed to wander past all three stores, although I didn't plan to.

On a rainy Saturday night in Melbourne, it is good to look back at snapshots of a place and time that seem both distant, and yet not so far out of reach. 

My writer's toolkit

I have a range of tools in my writer’s toolkit, items that inevitably accompany me when I set off on a writing jaunt. But first, let me be clear about something. I know that the writing’s the real point - and that fetishism of objects and ‘kit’ is a red herring, to use that time-worn literary cliché - but I can’t help finding the paraphernalia of writing inspirational, and an integral part of the craft. Collecting and using lovely things is certainly part of the fun.

Firstly, let’s look at the digital tools. The weapon of choice is my 11-inch MacBook Air, a recent acquisition that I now could not be without. Excellent for posing as a hipster, as well as powerful, fast, practical and light as a feather. For a while I tried writing on a P-series Sony Vaio that I own; it is tiny, and great to carry, but I am a Mac user primarily and the keyboard didn’t really cut it; nor did battery life or the (lack of) usefulness of Windows software. So I’m back in the Mac fold, and I wouldn’t go anywhere with my Mac without also taking my wireless hotspot, a little mouse-like device that allows me to connect to the internet while I am out and about.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, there are the analog tools in my kit. I do more than half of my writing in old-school longhand, and I am pleased to say that my handwriting has been steadily improving as the years roll by. (My hand used to be dreadful, in primary school I had a jagged chicken’s scrawl. It would appear that practise is everything in this sphere.)

While the contents vary from time to time, I keep my analog tools in a bright blue vinyl Pinoccio pencil case by MMMG, otherwise known as Millimetre/Milligram, who make lovely stationery bits and pieces. This is a photo of the Pinoccio here. It really is an aesthetic delight, and such a brilliant blue.

​Inside the Pinoccio you will find a range of pens and pencils at any given time, including but not limited to:

• Two Axel Weinbrecht stainless steel Beta pens of different sizes (fancy steel-tipped, inkless ‘pens’ that uses medieval technology for marking a mark)
• A Lamy Pico mini ballpoint in Royal Blue, in a tidy little leather pouch
• A Porsche Design P3110 Stainless Steel weave ballpoint
• Some Blackwing Palomino pencils and a sharpener
• An Apple Green Lamy Safari fountain pen
• A couple of blue Uniball Eye Fine pens by the Mitsubishi Pencil Company of Japan (cheap but excellent)
• And because it is new and I am still in love with it, the Faber Castell E-Motion Fountain Pen I mention in this earlier post.

Having a range of writing implements allows me to pick my tool according to my mood. I also just like having such lovely things on hand so I can make ready use of them - these objects were made to be used after all.

Finally, there is the writing pad of choice. For the feel and performance of the paper, particularly with fountain pens or the Uniball Eyes, I can’t go past the Rhodia pad by French paper outfit Clairefontaine. It might be more romantic to use a Moleskine in some people’s estimation, but I find them to be a little restrictive, and I feel more ‘precious’ about them for some reason, which is counterproductive.

Rhodia pads are well made, write smoothly and they seem more ‘generic’ than Moleskines, and I mean that in a good way. Less precious. The paper really is gorgeous, and I find that this matters when using better pens. Rhodia pads also come in a huge range of sizes and styles including A4 flip pads. I tend to favour the grid layout rather than the ruled or plain - perhaps it is my architectural training, but I like the look of handwriting more on the gridded pages. You can also use them sideways if the mood takes you.

You can find Rhodia pads, Pinoccio pencil cases and lots of my other kit at what is easily my favourite online stationery store, Notemaker.com.au. (In fact I can’t visit that site without buying something - I think I am paying the rent on their warehouse!) I got some of the pens mentioned above, including the Pico, the E-Motion and the Porsche, at Pen City on Elizabeth Street, another favourite haunt.

What’s in your kit? Share with the group.

Top 5 café writing venues

​Federal Coffee Palace, Melbourne GPO

​Café writing is an opportunistic sport, and if you are paying your way during your stay in a café, then all manner of places can be suitable. Nevertheless, it takes a particular kind of venue to encourage longer stints of work, some hard to define X-factor that makes a place particularly comfortable and good for writing. For this reason, the quality of coffee is of secondary importance to me - my list of the best coffee venues in inner Melbourne looks quite different to the list below! 

Of course, while selection of venue is important, it is equally important to observe an etiquette of café writing. This basically amounts to paying one’s way by ordering coffee, drinks and/or food, and not taking up tables at meal times when other people need them and none are free - unless of course you intend to eat. I find that if I stick to these two simple rules then I remain comfortable staying in a venue, and with that level of comfort comes a solid basis for getting some good, hard work done. Becoming a regular also helps enormously - if the staff know you are there to write, but that you also pay your way, then they will usually be happy enough to see you and won’t bug you too much between coffees. Doesn’t hurt to tip the waitstaff either.

So this is my current (short) list of favourite writing venues, most of which are located in downtown Melbourne. 

No. 1 on my list, for practicality and atmosphere, is the Federal Coffee Palace at the GPO on Elizabeth Street. This place is good any time in daylight hours, seven days a week - they almost always have a few tables and spots free, so there is less incentive to move on quickly. The setting is suitably European, and it is great for people-watching. They are also quite friendly there and don’t seem to mind you lingering over your coffee. Particularly good for weekends. 

No. 2 is Mess Hall on Bourke Street, which is great but it can get busy around meal times, and at breakfast on weekends. Still a nice sunny spot to dream away a few hours, and good coffee too.

No. 3 is C&B Café on Block Place. Gets busy around meal times, but you can usually ensconce yourself there for an hour or two if you pick your moment wisely. Excellent for crowd watching as a backdrop for writing.

No. 4 is is one I haven’t tried for a while, but an old favourite: Rosati on Flinders Lane, which is best for Monday to Friday stints. There is lots of room to move, and  they don’t mind if you stay for a few hours. Although I haven’t done so recently, I have in the past often stayed there for up to 2-3 hours working without feeling like I needed to move on. I hope it hasn’t changed.

No. 5 is a bit of a cheat - it is simply the café that is closest to hand, wherever you might find yourself. It is a simple fact that nearly any place will do in a pinch, particularly when you find yourself out of your normal habitat, wandering about the city or the countryside on other business. I particularly love bakeries and cafés in small country towns, where they are friendly and the pace moves a little slower. If you can take a little time out of your day while you are on other business, you can get some good work done. (I attempted this a little unsuccessfully for an hour by the seaside yesterday, see this post here.)

My ‘second string’ list has places that are great venues in terms of atmosphere, but they lack practicality, mostly because I feel as though I need to move on from them pretty quickly. These include: Journal at the City Library on Flinders Lane, which has great coffee but a small space, and it gets busy; ditto for The European on Spring Street; Pellegrinos and Florentinos Cellar Bar on Bourke Street; and Mr Tulk on Latrobe Street at the State Library of Victoria.

These places have good atmosphere but are, frankly, more suitable for those merely posing as café intellectuals, rather than those of us who would rather at least try to get some work done while drinking coffee and inevitably still looking like posers. Opening up your Macbook might make you look and feel quite cosmopolitan in these environments, but it is hard to settle in for any length of time as they are venues in demand from the socialising public. (More on such matters here - take particular note of point 5! I don’t care what Scalzi says, I still like writing in cafés, even if it is part mating ritual. His advice is otherwise excellent. While you are canvassing different opinions, try this from Malcolm Gladwell. That jerk with the laptop? C'est moi.)

What are your favourite café writing venues in Melbourne, or for that matter elswhere in the world? What are your selection criteria?