Babington's tea room
Babington's tea room, established in 1893, is a traditional English tea shop at the foot of the Spanish Steps in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, Italy. History The tea room was founded by two young women, one from New Zealand and one from England, who arrived in Rome in 1893. They were Isabel Cargill, daughter of William Cargill, founder of the city of Dunedin in New Zealand and Anna Maria Babington, descendant of Anthony Babington who was hanged in 1586 for conspiring against Elizabeth I. The women decided to invest their savings (100 pounds) by opening a tearoom and reading room in the capital for the Anglo-Saxon. The company at the time involved considerable risks, above all because in Italy it was not common to drink tea, which was sold only in pharmacies. Babington's tea room was an immediate success, both because Italy was the destination of the Grand Tour for the English and because it was part of a Rome that celebrated the Jubilee and the silver wedding of the royals Umberto and Margherita. Originally the tea room was on Via dei Due Macelli, a sideroad of the Piazza di Spagna, but the establishment's success encouraged the owners