Enrico Franceschini, corrispondente for La Repubblica, shares his favourite places in London.
What’s your favourite place to have a coffee and have a good start of the day?
Either coffee or cappuccino, breakfast or brunch, it’s at Maison d’eitre, a small nice coffee shop run by a French-Vietnam woman. It is an independent coffee house just across the Highbury and Islington tube station. You can eat so well there and in the weekend there is a long queue outside of the shop to get a seat.
Which is your favourite museum?
Tate Modern. You can have a wonderful view from there and you can cross by walk the Millennium Bridge on river Thames.
Which is your favourite place for stroll?
Southwark, no doubt.
Which is your favourite building in London?
I will be ordinary, I know: Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. I get excited every time I enter this building.
What is your favourite shop?
I’ll be ordinary again. Nike store in Oxford street.
What would you do if you were the mayor of London?
I would appoint Sadiq Kahn as mayor.
Where you can have your ideal meal?
Hakkasan, the one in Hanway place, the original restaurant of Hakkasan that opened in 2001 in London. Better for dinner. A place where you can experience fine Chinese dining, located just behind Liverpool Street Station.
Which is the place in London that more than others makes you feel Italian?
Bar Italia in Soho. The bar was opened in 1949 by Lou and Caterina Polledri that emigrated from the city of Piacenza in Northern Italy in the 20s.
Your secret place in London is…
It is not a secret at all, but please make do with that. It’s St Katharine Docks in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It reminds me of Cesenatico (a small town on the shores of Emilia-Romagna), where I usually go in summer.
