I don’t deliberately plan to take family and friends to global Ernest Hemingway haunts, but the great author was so well traveled, it’s hard not to cross his path. I will admit, though, once a vacation spot is chosen, and I know Papa spent time there, he becomes part of the vacation itinerary.
La Pepica was Hemingway’s favorite restaurant in Valencia, Spain. When I took the family to Valencia to celebrate Christmas in 2008, we walked one night from our apartment to the seaside to enjoy dinner at La Pepica. A wall-sized photo of Papa eating at the restaurant dominates one of the several rooms that face the ocean, and we enjoyed a hearty meal of seafood and rice.
Hemingway started his career of writing fiction as one of the Lost Generation living on the Left Bank of Paris. When our cooking club flew to Paris in 2010, the group was kind enough to allow me to reserve a hotel on the Left Bank so we could walk the same streets, eat croissants at the same cafes, and peruse the same wooden bookstalls along the Seine that Hemingway did. A Movable Feast is a mesmerizing memoir of Papa’s time in Paris with the other soon-to-be-famous writers of the Lost Generation. I highly recommend it, and it was quasi-required reading for our group on that trip.
Last year, the cooking club spent a long (rainy) weekend on Key West. During a short break from the tropical depression that refused to move on, we rented bikes and rode into town to shop, have lunch, and see Hemingway’s home there. Looking at his book collection, I was delighted to see that he was a fan of Georges Simenon too, and I loved his writing room, complete with mounts from his African hunts.
I own all of Ernest Hemingway’s works, and have read many of them. A first edition copy of For Whom The Bell Tolls is a highlight of my personal library. My favorite novel of his is The Sun Also Rises; in fact, in my opinion it is the greatest novel ever written. Reading it should be on your bucket list.
berowne.com 