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Life is Beautiful bar turned into soup kitchen

The Local Italy
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Life is Beautiful bar turned into soup kitchen
Life is Beautiful is a tragi-comedy about the Holocaust written by Roberto Benigni. Image: Wikipedia

Caffé dei Costanti, a bar and restaurant in the Tuscan town of Arezzo made famous by the Oscar-winning film, Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella), is being transformed into a soup kitchen for Christmas.

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Fifty people living in poverty will have lunch at the restaurant on Christmas Day as part of an event organised by the charity, Caritas, according to a report in Il Mattino

They will be served by police officers and local councillors.

Caffé dei Costanti, the oldest bar in Arezzo, was made poignant in Life is Beautiful, a tragi-comedy about the Holocaust written by Roberto Benigni, in a scene where a sign on its window reads, “No Jews or Dogs Allowed.”

The number of Italians slipping into poverty continues to rise as the country’s most severe recession tightens its grip: a report by Eurostat in early December revealed that 29.9 percent of Italians are at risk of poverty, a figure surpassed in the Eurozone only by Greece.

Francesco Marsico, the vice president for the Italian branch of Caritas, recently told The Local that 12 percent more people called on the charity for food, clothes, medicine and other basic necessities this year compared to 2012. 

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