In his new book, Café Life Florence (Interlink Books, 2005, $20), Joe Wolff ’67 (with photographer Roger Paperno) takes readers on a lively, caffeinated tour of Florence, complete with gossip- and history-laden interviews with the gregarious café owners. The book, wrote the San Francisco Chronicle, “doesn’t try to be comprehensive, instead directing readers to a thoroughly researched selection of family-owned cafes, bars, and gelaterias, and offering a unique perspective on life in the city.”
Wolff says the idea for this book (and his first book, Café Life Rome), was born “because I went to the Loyola University, Rome campus as a student and fell in love with Rome.” Wolff was over 50 when his first book was published, and, he says, “The second book has come out at a time when most people from my class are thinking about retiring…and at an age when things like this aren’t supposed to happen in our youth-oriented culture.”