It was in 1946, when the war in Europe had hardly ended and Venice was still under the control of the Allied armies, that I first poked my nose through the doors of Harry's Bar in Venice. I was young, rather shy, and extremely unworldly, and I did not know what to expect. From the outside the place hardly looked like a bar, occupying as it did an elegant building like a little palazzo. The frosted glass of its windows made it difficult to peer inside. I had heard tales of vast prices and an excr ...

It was in 1946, when the war in Europe had hardly ended and Venice was still under the control of the Allied armies, that I first poked my nose through the doors of Harry's Bar in Venice. I was young, rather shy, and extremely unworldly, and I did not know what to expect. From the outside the place hardly looked like a bar, occupying as it did an elegant building like a little palazzo. The frosted glass of its windows made it difficult to peer inside. I had heard tales of vast prices and an excr ...